The White Lady of i'Hísië
by Damia
Summary: StargateLoTRs Crossover: [SJ] [[Part 1 of 2 in Series]] (COMPLETE) When you find yourself stuck in a world that is not your own, you realise you are duty bound to help new friends protect theirs.
1. Flight of the Lost

This is the first part of the "White Lady" series, which (if you haven't read any further yet) is in reference to Sam Carter. This story is now complete, and its sequel, "The White Lady of Gondor" is currently a WIP. So sit back and enjoy! Remember, like any sane writer, I adore feedback and reviews, so feel free to drop me a line! :D  
  
****  
  
Story's Title Translation: "White Lady of the Mists"  
  
Author: Damia  
  
Email: Damia_1@hotmail.com  
  
Pairing: Sam/Jack. Other/Other  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own anything Stargate SG-1! Also, don't own anything Lord of the Rings!! (Sadly!).  
  
Season: Season 7 Stargate (Danny's back. Set Five years before Frodo and the Hobbits go to Rivendell for the Council of Elrond.  
  
Summery: When you find yourself in a world that is not your own, you realise you are duty bound to help new friends protect theirs.  
  
Notes: To my calculations, Sam arrives in Middle-Earth in the year, 3013 of the Third Age, five years before Council of Elrond, which is in October, 3018.  
  
******  
  
Part One: ""All dead, all rotten. Elves and Men and Orcs. The Dead Marshes.  
  
There was a great battle long ago, yes, so they told him when Sméagol was young,  
  
when I was young before the Precious came. It was a great battle.  
  
Tall men with long swords, and terrible Elves, and Orcses shrieking.  
  
They fought on the plain for days and months at the Black Gates.  
  
But the Marshes have grown since then, swallowed up the graves,  
  
always creeping, creeping."  
  
Gollum at the Dead Marshes. "The Two Towers"  
  
****  
  
If he was honest with himself, the last few months had been some of the best in his life and Jack sure as hell wasn't complaining.  
  
Even now, as he made his way down a corridor of the SGC, his hands were stuffed in his pockets and he was whistling happily, lost in his own little world that consisted of himself, a pot of warm melted chocolate and a very naked blonde major.  
  
With that thought in mind, Jack O'Neill had a very broad grin on his face as he turned the corner and walked casually into the lab of his choice. Still whistling, he surveyed the room and a frown appeared on his face when he finally caught sight of the woman he was looking for. She was lying on the ground on her stomach, underneath her desk, her hands buried in a large box, rustling back and forth.  
  
Knowing that she was completely oblivious to his presence, Jack silently shut the door behind him and leaned up against it, crossing his arms across his chest and he gazed down at the woman on the floor, fascinated, a huge grin slowly appearing on his face.  
  
He couldn't see her face, unfortunately, but he would have bet a million dollars that her tongue would be poking out the side of her mouth and her eyes would almost be cross-eyed as she concentrated on what she was fiddling with. Even now, he could hear her muttering to herself and that notion made him grin even wider as a plan slowly formed in his mind.  
  
Over the past two months he had learned a hell of a lot about Sam Carter that he hadn't realised before they had gotten together. Personally, in some cases, he thanked god that he hadn't known some of that stuff. How was he meant to concentrate if he knew that she had a tendency to wear totally un-regulation underwear on missions?  
  
Her excuse had been that it made her feel more feminine on a team that consisted of her self and four males but Jack wasn't so sure. He had seen how she would wink at him as they walked up the ramp towards the Wormhole and he just knew she had done it to drive him mad. And it had worked. Now every time they went off world he would be staring at her ass as they climbed the ramp, wondering what lovely colour she would be wearing that day and how quickly they could wrap up the mission so he could find out first hand.  
  
With that thought in mind, he noiselessly crept across the lab until he came to her desk, his feet just inches from her stretched out leg. Knowing that she had a tendency of turning off the camera in her lab if she was going to be doing anything remotely embarrassing (such as the time she spent half an hour looking for her car keys) he bent down at the knees and stretched out his hands.  
  
Suddenly, he pounced.  
  
Quick as lightening, he reached out with his hands and latched them onto her waist, squeezed tightly and said a loud "Boo!"  
  
The effect was instantaneous.but not necessarily what he had been going for.  
  
He had never heard a woman scream quite so loudly as Sam did then. His honestly thought his eardrums would never recover as she leapt upwards and seemingly tried to turn around at the same time to fend off her attacker. Jack, stunned at the volume of her shriek, just crouched there, face black and ears ringing, as she spun around on to her back, thumping her head on the bottom of the desk as she went and delivered an almighty punch to his face for good measure.  
  
The force of the punch, aided by the fact that he was on unsteady legs, sent Jack flying.  
  
He landed on his back and felt his breath being knocked out of him. For a few seconds he just lay there, dazed, before the sound of a woman's hysterical crying filtered into his ears.  
  
Wincing as his knees protested, he flipped him self over and crawled on hands and knees over to Sam where she sat, leaning up against the desk, hiccupping as huge watery tears dripped down her face. There was a spot of blood on her forehead where she must have hit the bottom of the desk and Jack instantly reached out for it when he came to a stop, still on his hands and knees, in front of her.  
  
She must have finally noticed him for she reached up and hit away his hand, still sobbing with the after-effects of fright. She turned her gaze on him as he jerked his hand back, and Jack was shocked to see her expression was murderous. Her eyes were narrowed in fury and before he could even think to move away, she reached out and punched him again on the other side of his face.  
  
"You bastard!" she cried, sniffling, as she cradled her now throbbing hand against her chest.  
  
Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all, Jack decided hazily as he reached up and tentatively touched both his injured checks.  
  
Just then, the door was thrown open and Jack looked up through pounding eyes to see Daniel standing in the doorway, Teal'c right behind him, both men taking in the scene instantly. Sam sitting on the floor, crying her eyes out with a bleeding forehead and a mighty sore looking hand, while he wasn't looking much better with the beginning of two black eyes.  
  
"Jack, what did you do to her?" Daniel cried, rushing over to Sam while Teal'c walked into the room and shut the door behind him.  
  
"Thanks, Danny." Jack muttered back sarcastically while watching as the younger man helped Sam to her feet and lead her gently over to the chair. Even though he could be a pain in the butt, it really was great to have him back.  
  
"Are you okay, Sam?" Danny asked her kindly, while reaching into his pocket for a hanky and dabbing it on the cut on her forehead. She had stopped crying now, but Jack could see her hands were still shaking. When she didn't answer Daniel, he turned back to Jack with narrowed eyes.  
  
"Well?" he asked pointedly. "What happened here exactly and why is she crying!?"  
  
Giving Teal'c a smile of thanks as the Jaffa helped him to his feet, Jack rubbed his hands over his face then winced as he touched his tender cheek. "It was an accident." Jack muttered loudly. "One that I'm sure as hell never repeating in this life time." Then suddenly, as if the injustice caused against him were finally realised, he stood up straighter and pointed at Sam.  
  
"That woman is crazy! Do you realise that!? Completely nuts! She punched me! Twice!"  
  
Daniel and Teal'c both stared at him like he was the crazy one but Jack didn't care. Silence filled the room abruptly, no one knowing exactly how to answer that. Then unexpectedly, Jack heard a sound he had become all too familiar with lately. Turning to Sam, he stared at her, astounded, as she did it again.  
  
She was laughing.  
  
"You think this is funny!?" he hollered  
  
If he was expecting her to say sorry then he was sorely disappointed for she just looked down and wiped her running nose with the back of her hand. Snorting, unladylike, she looked around her lap at the mess on the floor and instantly frowned, all humour forgotten. Reaching out, she was about to whack Jack again, but he obviously saw her intention and jumped away from her swishing hand.  
  
His eyes wide, he pointed at Sam and all but jumped up and down. "See!" he cried to Daniel and Teal'c. "She just tried to do it again!"  
  
Daniel frowned at him and moved to stand slightly in front of Sam as if to protect her from her over crazed lover. "What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked, baffled at his team leader's behaviour. "Sam's the one bleeding here, Jack. A little consideration wouldn't go amiss, you know." His tone dripped disapproval.  
  
Jack's mouth all but fell open. "I can't believe you guys!" he cried. "I try and do something funny and how do I get repaid? Two black eyes and more coming if shes got anything to say about it!"  
  
He looked down at Sam and saw that she was smirking up at him from between her two protectors, who seemingly couldn't see her expression. Narrowing his eyes, not seeing any humour in the situation, he waved a finger right in front of her face. "And you!"  
  
Words failed him and he desperately tried to think of a reprimand firm enough to yell at her. But she just continued to smirk up at him, not a care in the world, blood still dripping down her temple. It was the blood that did it. Jack felt his anger slip away like storm water down a drain and he just stood there, staring at her.  
  
She saw it the second it happened and raised her eyebrows. "Well?" she said suddenly, getting Danny and Teal'c attention. "Had your fun for the day now that you've scared the crap out of me and cut my head open?"  
  
Jack thought that 'head cutting' stuff was going a bit far but he wasn't about to say that, instead noticing instantly that she didn't sound so humorous any longer and realised that she had probably just been playing the fool to let him release steam before she tore a strip off him. Wincing, he knew he probably disserved it. Now that he thought about it, scaring her half to death probably wasn't a very good idea.  
  
He was SO sleeping alone tonight.  
  
Determined not to go down without a fight, he put his hands on his hips and stared her down. "Well, you shouldn't go punching people in your lab anyway! Hell! For all you know I could have been Hammond!"  
  
All three of the people staring at him all raised their eyebrows identically but it was Sam who spoke.  
  
"And why would the General be grabbing me round the waist anyway, Jack?" she asked tolerantly, rolling her eyes at the same time for good measure.  
  
Sputtering, he ignored the smiles that suddenly appeared on Danny and Teal'c faces and wished fervently that he had never come into her lab in the first place and gone down to the commissary and had some pie. At least that way he wasn't going to be looking like a Panda tomorrow morning.  
  
He groaned with that thought. Doc was going to be on his case with this one for the next five years at least.  
  
Determined to save his dignity, Jack straightened his back and started walking backwards towards the door. "Yes, well." He said, fumbling with his words. He locked his gaze with Sam's. "I'll talk to YOU later."  
  
And with that, he quickly spun around and bolted out the door, but not before he heard the sound of Sam's laughter and Daniel's half concerned, half joking comment of,  
  
"Are you sure your okay, Sam? You want me to go get Janet? I'm sure she'd love this."  
  
****  
  
Two days later, Jack was beginning to think he would never live the incident down. He knew the grapevine in the SGC was bad, but man! He guessed it wasn't every day that a CO scares the pants off his 2IC enough to make her bled in her own laboratory. At least nobody was going over board with the rumours and adding romantic pointers to them, that would be all they needed.  
  
Jack was thanking whatever gods existed that Hammond hadn't said anything. Oh, he had heard, that was obvious by the fleeting grin on his face when he and Sam had walked into the briefing room together yesterday morning. Jack could tell that he was just containing his mirth as he caught sight of Jack's darkened eyes and the cute little blue plaster on Sam's forehead. For all the world, they looked like a pair of causalities of war sporting their wounds.  
  
But he had been concerned enough with Sam's head to postpone their mission a day in case she had any long term effects, a fact that had made Jack feel even more guilty than before and throw a quick glance in her direction to see for himself that she was actually okay. Which she was, of course. Over all, he had to admit she was taking it well. She was even allowing him in a 10-meter radius of her, which Jack saw as a bonus. In fact, they had shared a lovely evening just last night nursing their wounds together with a few very unconditional methods of their own.  
  
So here they were, finally getting ready for their mission ahead, and Jack was running over a few minute details in his office before going to get geared up. They were set to leave for Cimmera in an hour, the whole team being invited back for some festival or rather. Jack didn't know all the details; he was leaving that up to Daniel, Jonas and Sam.  
  
He had initially been surprised how well the newly formed SG-1 had worked with Daniel back in their midst after his little adventure through the stars, but he really shouldn't have bothered. Jonas and Danny had clicked together like glue and got on better than peanut butter and jam. Sam, of course, was almost always included in their little circle of brilliance, and the three of them would span off into a completely different language in Jack's books, leaving him and Teal'c to fend for themselves most of the time. Not that this bothered him overly much, for him spent the majority of his time staring at Sam's ass when she couldn't see.  
  
He didn't know what Teal'c did to pass the time, but he sure as hell hoped it wasn't the same thing.  
  
The sound of the door opening caught his attention and he looked up to see the woman in question silently walk through the door, turn around and quickly shut it, flicking the lock. Watching her, Jack frowned. She had never done that before, for obvious reasons. It would be way to obvious if someone found them locked together in his office.  
  
"You okay?" he asked, getting a bit concerned when he saw the expression on her face when she turned back to face his desk. It was one of resolve and determination, as if she was about to drop a bombshell and was forcing herself to do it.  
  
"I'm fine, Jack." She answered. "Great actually." Then a small, gentle smile appeared on her face as she reached out and dragged the other chair over to his desk. Sitting down serenely, she continued to watch him to his dismay.  
  
"You sure, cause your really starting to freak me out."  
  
A small smile tugged at the side of her mouth and she took a deep breath. "I skipped a period." She announced calmly.  
  
Taking a sip of his coffee at the moment probably hadn't been a very good idea for he spat it right out again all over his dreaded paper work and stared across at the woman before him, wondering how the hell he was going to answer that one. Swallowing, he went for the diplomatic version, his brain not fully understanding what she was on about.  
  
"Ahh..really?" he said, one eyebrow rose in delicate question. "Isn't that normal?" He coughed and quickly added, "I mean, doesn't that happen sometimes?"  
  
Jesus, he wasn't up with all this woman crap, Jack thought absently. How was he supposed to deal with this?  
  
"Not two in a row, Jack."  
  
The penny finally dropped.  
  
Jack stared at her, his mouth falling open in astonishment. He suddenly hoped by some slim chance he happened to have two hearts in his body for his first one sure wasn't up to working at that moment. A million thoughts unexpectedly flew through his mind and he wondering how he was ever going to sort through them all.  
  
"Holy Shit." was all he could make out, as he continued to stare at her, amazed that she could be so calm as she sat there, gazing back at him. She raised an eyebrow at that and Jack realised she probably wasn't very impressed with his timely answer.  
  
"I mean.are you sure?" He didn't know what the hell to do, whether he should get up off his seat and go around to her, or just sit there for the next few minutes until the feeling returned to his legs.  
  
Sam tipped her head as a small smile appeared on her lips. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure, Jack."  
  
Silence filled the room as she obviously gave him a few moments to get this all in. Jack just sat back in his desk and gaped at her, completely forgetting that the cameras in the room were probably monitoring their conversation at full volume.  
  
Finally, Jack shook his head slowly and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "How?" he whispered, stunned at this new development.  
  
Her eyebrow shot up again and she regarded him with the faint amusement that woman were so fond of using when men were being dumb asses. "Oh, I don't mean *how*, how. Just.. HOW, how?"  
  
Sam cocked her head to the side slightly and grinned. "Was that actually a sentence?" But when Jack scowled at her, she chuckled, calm-as-you-please, and took pity on him.  
  
"You remember a few months ago I had the flu?"  
  
Jack snorted. Hell, of course he remembered. That, added with Daniel's unexpected return shortly before, had been that catalyst for them getting together in the first place.. but that was a whole other story!  
  
Seeing she was waiting, he nodded his head and wisely kept his thoughts to himself. She continued with, "Yeah, well, it turns out that Janet stopped my birth control as they interfered with the medicines she was stuffing into me." Sam pulled a face with that. "I guess she just forgot to tell me."  
  
"So we can pretty much blame this on the Doc?" Jack asked, sitting up straighter in his chair, liking the idea immensely.  
  
But Sam frowned at that, not pleased. "I don't think there should be any blaming, thank you very much." Almost unconsciously, her hand went down to rest on her flat tummy. Seeing where she was heading, Jack jumped out of his chair and rushed around to her side of the desk, getting down on his knees before her, even though they both winced when they popped.  
  
"Now don't you go thinking like that, Major." he said quickly, gathering both her hands in his, not caring what the cameras saw. "I didn't mean it like that, and shame on you for thinking otherwise." He reaching up and scratched his head, giving her a sheepish look.  
  
"Just came at a bit of a shock, that's all."  
  
Sam looked slightly peevish. "Well, I wasn't exactly expecting it either, Jack."  
  
They looked at each other suddenly, both lost in the wonder of the news. "What are we going to do?" Jack whispered, mostly to himself, but she obviously heard for her face softened and she reached down to cup his cheek.  
  
"I don't know, but we'll think of something." Then she looked at him with a shy smile. "I'm quite excited."  
  
Jack looked up at her and felt the first signs of a grin appearing on his face. It grew and grew until he was out right smiling. "Same." He whispered, squeezing her hands.  
  
There was no talk of them not having the baby, for it wasn't an option. They both loved kids, and there wasn't a chance in hell that they were going to get rid of it. Okay, so the timing was a little off, but that couldn't be helped and they would work with what they had to make a go of it. All of this didn't need to be voiced for they both already knew it in their hearts.  
  
Finally, Sam gently let his hands go and stood up with a stretch. "Anyway, we better go get geared up or the others will start to wonder where we are."  
  
Talk of the mission seem to drag Jack out of his wonderous gaze at Sam's belly and he threw a troubled look at her face. "Oh, hell, the mission." he stated, his tone full of dread.  
  
She looked at him with an eyebrow raised, puzzled at his manner. "What about it?" she asked.  
  
Jack spread his hands wide to include her body. "You can't go on a mission pregnant, Sam!" he cried, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
Sam frowned. "Why ever not?" she asked, then seemingly realised what he was on about. "Oh, come on, Jack. It's Cimmera, for heavens sake. What's really gonna happen to me there?" Seeing that he was about to interrupt, she quickly continued. "And if you worried about Gate Travel, there is no reason what so ever that I can't go off world. Nothing Danny or any one else has found states any dangers to Gate Travel for a pregnant woman, 2 weeks or 9 months gone."  
  
Jack snapped his mouth shut with that, but he still glared at her, clearly unhappy with the situation. Smiling, she went over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, giving him a quick kiss on the lips that successfully wiped the frown from his face. Instead, he jerked his head in the direction of the cameras, his eyes never leaving hers.  
  
"Your handy work, I gather?" he asked dryly, realising that she would never be this forward if they were being watched, not to mention the conversation.  
  
But she just grinned, unabashed at her trickery, and kissed him again, hard on the lips.  
  
When she drew back she was faintly proud to see the dazed look had reappeared on his face. Leaning forward so their foreheads touched, she looked deep into his eyes and whispered, "When we get back we'll sit down and talk it all over, okay? And I'll explain everything again cause there is no way you just took it all in just now." She grinned as he grew thoughtful, wondering if that was a complement or not.  
  
Then he growled deeply, "You better." Pulling back, he punched a quick kiss to her nose and cupped both her cheeks. "I'm happy with this, Sam, I really am."  
  
Tears forming, she looked up at him through blurry eyes. "I know. And so am I."  
  
With that, the two lovers regretfully parted and Sam quickly reached up to wipe her eyes. It wouldn't do for people to see her crying in Colonel O'Neill's company twice in one week.  
  
When she was ready, Jack opened the door and ushered her through, both of them now far to distracted to concentrate of the mission ahead.  
  
****  
  
They met up with the rest of their team a while later in the gate room where they were waiting for them. Teal'c and Jonas were standing together, having a casual conversation at the base of the ramp, while Daniel was kneeling down, rummaging through his backpack. He looked up as the two of them entered through the blast doors and smiled at them.  
  
"There you are. We were beginning to wonder if you guys were going to turn up at all." He joked, his tone quiet as there were Airmen around who would have heard if he'd been any louder and Daniel definitely didn't want to be the one who gave Sam and Jack's secret away. He and the others had known they were seeing each other secretly practically since it had happened, but that didn't mean he had the right to go blab it onto the next person. He had been touched that they had trusted him enough to keep it a secret and he honoured that trust greatly. He knew that Jonas and Teal'c felt the same.  
  
Sam looked into Daniel's face and smiled, even though there was still the faint spookiness she felt seeing him without his glasses. There were some advantages to Ascending and Descending, she understood, and getting perfect eye vision was one of them.  
  
Giving Danny a slap on the back as a greeting, the more thoughtful Colonel than usual greeted Jonas and Teal'c with a soft 'Hello.'  
  
"Ready Campers?" he asked, turning his gaze up to the Control Room when they all nodded. He tipped his hat at General Hammond who was standing there, watching them, and he could see him ordering the Gate be dialled up through the glass. Turning back to face his team, he noticed Daniel frowning at him in concern as he flicked glances back and forth from him and Sam.  
  
"You okay, Jack?" he asked, wondering what he was missing to make the Colonel so subdued, yet calm.  
  
Jack smiled at his friend but shot Sam a fond look before answering. "Yeah, I'm fine, Danny." Before the Doctor could answer, Jack turned back to the ramp as the gate started to dial up.  
  
Jonas and Teal'c broke off their conversation and walked over to stand next to Sam and Daniel. "I can't wait to meet this woman, Daniel." Jonas said, excitedly, and he was all but pulling on his friend's sleeve.  
  
Sam hid her smile but Jack turned to regard Jonas with bland interest. "If you talking about Gairwyn, then your in for a treat, Jonas. Shes a great old bird." He shot Sam an amused glance. "You'll really like her."  
  
Teal'c raised an eyebrow at that as the sound of the gate dialling up filled the room. "I do not see the resemblance to the Lady Gairwyn and a bird, O'Neill. Am I to believe you speak of her with some injustice?" His tone was disproving and Jack looked at him in surprise.  
  
"Hell no, Teal'c!" he said, shaking his hands in front of him. "Its nothing like that!" As Teal'c still regarded him stonily, he turned to Daniel and pointed in his direction. "Danny will help you, Teal'c. He's good with this sort of thing." With that, he grabbed hold of Sam and Jonas by their sleeves and all but pulled them up the ramp as the Wormhole appeared, bathing them all in a blue light.  
  
"You really did disserve that, you know." Sam told him frankly as they walked up the ramp, Teal'c and a busily explaining Daniel behind them.  
  
Jack sighed. "That man will be the death of me, I swear."  
  
Laughing, Sam turned around and walked backwards towards the Wormhole. "As long as it's not in the next few days, I'm not complaining." she teased, now that they were out of range of the Airmen. "We still have to have our talk, you know," she reminded him tenderly.  
  
Coming to stop just inches from the Wormhole, Jack gave her a warm smile. "I look forward to it, Major." He said affectionately, causing Jonas to look between the two to see what he missed. But they both ignored him, lost in their own little world for the moment before Sam started to turn around as her body began to disappear through the blueness.  
  
"See you on the other side, Colonel." Sam taunted, before turning around and disappearing completely.  
  
Intending to follow her through, Jack instead heard the warning signs of the Gate's build up of power a second before he was thrown through the air so forcefully that he landed at the bottom of the ramp and rolled a few times before coming to a stop by the wall.  
  
The gate room erupted in noise as the Gate started to scream, blue energy flickering over the Chevrons angrily. Faintly hearing the sounds of Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c landing and rolling next to him as they too, were thrown away from the gate, Jack looked up from the ground through dazed eyes at the gate as it began to flicker in and out, the sound of General Hammond's voice sounding through the room.  
  
But Jack ignored it, he instead concentrated all of his power on the gate, knowing that his vision was fading into darkness as unconsciousness called. He watched as the Gate suddenly vanished before appearing again, causing alarms to sound loudly through the already chaos filled room.  
  
Someone grabbed his shoulder and rolled him over onto his back, but he didn't see them, instead slowly closing his eyes against the pain, but his mind screaming out for him to get up and find her, to see where she had ended up. He forced his eyes open slowly and looked around the hazy room, but he couldn't see her at all.  
  
"Sam." he whispered hoarsely, brokenly, as his thoughts suddenly returned to him and he realised in growing horror that she had gone through the gate.  
  
"Sir, just try and stay still." He recognised Janet's voice through the dim, but he couldn't reply, he again closed his eyes and let his head fall limply to the side, not hearing her cry of alarm as he did so.  
  
She was gone. Gone through the gate.  
  
Both of them.  
  
It was that thought that suddenly made Jack O'Neill finally give in to the darkness, his mind growing with the horror, ready to be unleashed on him when he awoke.  
  
But for now it would just have to wait.  
  
*** 


	2. Galadriel's Promise

Part Two:  
  
"Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"  
  
The Muster of Rohan. "The Return of the King"  
  
****  
  
Sam Carter could hear the wheezing wind-up of the Gate's power even from inside the wormhole. Instead of the non-stop travel to the other planet from the Stargate, it was as if she was stuck in limbo half way to her destination. As she lay there, paralysed between time and space, she wondered deep in her subconscious were the rest of her team were, if they too, were suck in the abyss that she now resided in, or that they had actually made it to their objective.  
  
SG-1 had been invited by Gairwyn back to Cimmera for some kind of yearly festival celebration and were looking forward to a few well-deserved days off. Thinking back, her mind failing, Sam could just remember stepping through the gate before the rest of her team before disaster struck. There was no way of knowing if Jack, Daniel, Jonas or Teal'c had followed her through.  
  
It could have been a minute or a million years that she hung there, suspended in the blue wash of the wormhole. Her eyes were closed; she knew that much for the blackness of her eyelids was the only colour she could make out. She sighed, feeling herself falling into a deep, deep sleep.  
  
Suddenly, Sam was torn from her slumber by the sound of an almighty rip. It was as if time itself was being torn apart. As the pressure started to build on her mind she gave an ear-splitting scream of pure terror as she felt herself being pulled away from the abyss of cerulean comfort. Her hands were pinned at her sides, helpless to her struggles for freedom.  
  
The next conscious thought that came to her was one of being exploded from the safety of the blue wash that she travelled though so often and feeling herself being thrown through the air.  
  
With an enormous crash, the dazed woman found herself sprawled in the dirt of the planet's surface, her head smacking on the hard ground so forcefully that it made it ring. She lay there, stunned at the force of her landing, to damaged to move. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the Stargate flicker angrily, once.. twice.. before it disappeared completely.  
  
When she saw this, Sam groaned, as she realised no help would come. With a cry of pain, she managed to roll herself onto her back in the dirt and she lay there, heaving for breath. Her hand desperately clutched her flat stomach, trying in vane to protect her baby inside.  
  
The silence was suddenly broken by a voice that she had never heard before, but deep within her found very comforting.  
  
"Well, now!" said the voice. "Where have you come from, my lady? Falling out of that almighty ring like that?"  
  
Her vision swimming, Sam looked up at the sky, which was suddenly blocked by the figure of a very, very old man with a great grey beard and masses of grey hair. He was staring down at her; his bushy eyebrows raised in question, calm-as-you-please, waiting for her answer.  
  
Wondering if this was a figure of her imagination, Sam moaned and turned her head away from the man.  
  
"Now, Now! Don't have to be rude. I happen to know about many magical rings, but none to my knowledge can throw a person of itself! No, my lady, your magical ring is something quite different!"  
  
And that was the last thing Sam remembered for a very long time..  
  
****  
  
She woke in a bed, that much see knew. Smothering a moan, she reached up to grip her head, running her hands through her short blonde hair. Feeling the beginning of a bump, she winced and slowly took her hand away. Lifting her head, the Major started to survey her new surroundings, but instantly stopped in disbelief.  
  
She was in a large, airy chamber that had no walls to speak of, save for a huge, pointed roof that hung above her in all its silver, star-studded glory. Looking around, her sheets pooling about her waist, Sam found herself sitting in a large, comfy bed with silver sheets that matched the roof. Turning her head to the side, her eyes opened in shock as she saw a thick, blurry group of white tree branches outside her floor length window, swirling in the mist.  
  
"Oh, my god." she whispered, scrambling out of her bed to rush to the window. Grasping the railing in one hand, she looked down and found herself surrounded in pale, majestic white trees. She seemed to be in a chamber build high in the tops of some of the hugest trees Sam had ever seen.  
  
"Yes, they are quite impressive, no?" The same voice from before startled her out of her shock, and the woman spun around to face him.  
  
The old man was standing at the base of set of small steps that led down into the chamber from the doorway. He was leaning on a twisted, wooden staff and watching her intently from beneath his bushy grey eyebrows. Obviously knowing how unsettled she was, the man descended the stairs slowly, as if he expected her to bolt at any second.  
  
And deep in her mind, Sam wondered why she wasn't. She didn't know how long she had been out for, but surely Jack and the others would be searching for her desperately.if they survived the gate's outburst in the first place. But Sam refused to think like that, that her friends were dead and she was stuck out here in some godforsaken planet on her own. She clung to the notion that the address of the planet she was now on was locked into the base computer and her team were on their way to rescue her this very second.  
  
With that thought in mind, she started to shuffle towards the bed, to at least put some distance between her and the strange looking old man also in the room. When he saw her intention, the man frowned, but stopped abruptly.  
  
"I'm not going to harm you, my dear." He told her, his voice soft, and oddly enough, held a humorous tilt to it, as if he found her separation rather funny.  
  
"Yeah, well, that's for me to decide, mister, so just stay were you are." She deliberately made her voice sound tough, for she didn't want the old guy getting any funny ideas while they were alone together. Not that he could have gotten anything past Sam in his state, she mused. Looking him up and down obviously, she came to the conclusion that he must be about 100 years old.  
  
"Looks can be deceiving, young lion." He said simply, and Sam's eyes flew open in disbelief. It was as if he had read her mind. Ignoring her stunned expression, he continued without a beat, "I must ask that you do not try to leave this chamber in the near future, for honestly, you will not get very far."  
  
He smiled at her kindly, but Sam wasn't fooled. "I would like us to have a talk first. You were very ill when you arrived here, you shouldn't be moving around much." With that, he made his way purposely over to a chair next to the bed Sam hadn't even noticed before and sat down, staring at her expectedly.  
  
Sam had finally had enough.  
  
"Oh, I don't think so, buster," she snarled, and began to march towards the door..  
  
.. Only to get there and find it suddenly blocked by three tall, grave figures.  
  
Skidding to a halt, panic finally started to set in as Sam gaped up at the three men refusing her. They were some of the strangest looking people she had ever seen in all her travels, yet, in some way, some of the most beautiful. All three of the tall, imposing men had long, shimmering gold hair that reflected around them like a trio of halos. They had long, proud faces and deep blue eyes that pierced to her very soul. They were dressed in an assortment of long, flowing grey robes scattered with diamonds.  
  
And all were gazing down at her regally with their slanted, pearly eyes with a look of avid distrust.  
  
Stumbling back quickly, Sam looked around her wildly for another means of escape. Her situation had just gotten a hell of a lot worse and there was no way she was sitting around here waiting for the others to come and rescue her, she was doing it herself.  
  
So intend was she on escape, that she didn't even notice the old man get up quickly from the seat as she started to back away from everyone towards the huge window that acted as a wall in the room. He had just reached her, his hand outstretched to grip her arm, when she noticed him finally.  
  
"Get the hell away from me!" she cried, jerking away in shock, only to hit the bed as she went backwards, and let herself fall ungracefully to a sitting position. As the three men left their post at the door and quickly moved in towards her to aid the old man, their hands securely fastened on the sword hilts at their sides, Sam scrambled onto the bed and pushed backwards until she felt herself hit the head board. She stayed there, her eyes darting between the four men around the bed warily, gasping for breath.  
  
"She is a mortal, Gandalf, " one of the beautiful young men suddenly murmured to the old man. Turning in his direction at his voice, Sam found his gaze locked on her face keenly and she flinched, her eyes again dropping to the long, silver sword he wore strapped to his lean waist.  
  
The old man, Gandalf, obviously followed her gaze for he spoke next to the same blonde man who had first spoken. "Yes, thank you, Haldir. I'm quite sure I can handle it from here." He said pointly, indicating that the men should all leave.  
  
Haldir, the tall, majestic figure closest to Sam, shot Gandalf a quick, intense glance. Whatever he saw there made up his mind, and he gave a great sign before nodding his head shortly.  
  
"Of course."  
  
With that, he shot Sam another distrustful, fleeting look before turning and leading the two other men out of the room silently. When they were again alone, Sam slowly lifted her gaze to Gandalf's, not knowing what to expect.  
  
"Yes, well." He started, again sitting down and crossing his arms across his lap. "I am indeed sorry about all that, my dear. Elves, you see. Very emotional creatures they be."  
  
Still wary, but realising that they hadn't even touched her so far, Sam sat back against the head board more comfortably, and again began looking around her surroundings curiously. Suddenly, she blinked.  
  
Elves??  
  
Turning back to Gandalf, she stared at him with wide eyes, wondering if she had indeed heard him properly. Deciding not to comment on that, she instead said quietly,  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
Gandalf, who before this had been idly stroking his beard, eyeing the room much the same way Sam had been doing, stilled at her words and turned to face her, his eyes shinning. "You are in the Kingdom of Lothlórien, if you must know, where I have taken you." He told her offhandedly. "Under the protection and guard of Lord Celeborn and his lady, Galadriel."  
  
The words meant nothing to Sam and she shook her head, frustrated. "What does that mean?" she asked. "What planet?" she stressed.  
  
Gandalf blinked at her words, his hands slowing. "What planet?" he repeated. "What planet indeed. You are in Middle-Earth of course, where else did you expect to be?"  
  
Watching her reaction with narrowed eyes, the old man wasn't disappointed when Sam choked at his answer but schooled her emotions for a little bit longer. She had to find out where she was, and what had happened to the Stargate before she flew off the handle.  
  
"Middle-Earth?" she said hesitantly. "That is that the name of your planet?" It seemed like a very unusual name to her, but she wasn't about to say that. The fact that the name had 'Earth' in it hadn't escaped her attention either, and she wondered at the significance.  
  
Gandalf suddenly sighed and shook his head. "I don't know where you have come up with this Planet business, young lion, but it means nothing to me. Middle-Earth is the land you stand on." His eyes twinkled at the ironic fact that they were in fact, standing in trees, but continued.. "It is not a planet, whatever that may be."  
  
Forgetting her fear of the situation, her scientific mind taking over, she frowned in confusion and turned around to face the old man. "You don't know what a planet is?" she asked, finding that hard to believe. Maybe, she thought, they used another term.  
  
Gandalf nodded his head indifferently. "It seems so, but I am not bothered by it. I have spent my whole life up till now not hearing that word, and it has made no difference. I have lived my life how I always have without the knowledge of the word you hold dear, so how can one single word mean so much?"  
  
Sam gaped at him, wondering how in hell she was going to answer that one.  
  
Deciding she'd rather not, she tried another path. "What about a Stargate? Have you ever heard of that?"  
  
He again shook his head, and Sam's heart sank. "What about the Portal? The Ring?" she asked, trying to think of the other names it had been called over the years. At the last name, the man suddenly turned to her and blinked slowly.  
  
"Yes, the Ring." He said, and Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "It spat you out, it did." He continued, reaching into his cloak to bring out a long pipe. Sam watched, fascinated, while he loaded it with weed and lit it. Leaning back, he brought the pipe to his lips and took a deep breath.  
  
Seeing they were getting nowhere, Sam pressed the man to continue. "Have you ever seen it before?" she asked, trying to get his attention away from his pipe. Old people were so annoying!  
  
"That Ring?" Gandalf asked offhandedly. "No indeed."  
  
She truthfully felt her heart stop in her chest as she heard his answer. Unable to believe what she was hearing, she breathed, "You haven't?"  
  
Seemingly oblivious to her reaction, Gandalf took a puff of his pipe and turned his bushy eyes onto her once again, suddenly serious. "The Ring you came to us from has never been seen in Middle-Earth before, to my knowledge. I could be mistaken, of course, but it is highly unlikely. At any rate, it is gone now, probably never to return, so why bother asking about it?"  
  
Fury welled up in Sam like she had never felt before. Jumping off the bed, she started to pace the length of the chamber, her arms waving out in front of her as she raved. "How can you say that?" she gasped, coming to a stop before Gandalf, who was watching her with interest, still puffing on his pipe.  
  
Suddenly the sight of it annoyed the hell out of her and she spat, "Would you put that blasted thing down!? Don't you know Smoking's bad for you?"  
  
He ignored her last outburst, instead concentrating on her earlier words. "I saw it clear as day, my dear. I was in fact riding past the very place at which you arrived when it happened. The air became cold; the wind blew stronger, and out of the air appeared the Ring. It was angry, making a terrible racket, when it began to flash brightly. Suddenly, it opened blue, and then it spat you out."  
  
Sam didn't like to think of herself being 'spat out', but wisely kept that to herself. Thinking everything over in her head, she was overwhelmed. Sitting down on the bed again, she put her head in her hands and whispered loudly,  
  
"This can not be happening." The image of Jack filled her mind and she shuddered at the thought of him also being stuck somewhere on this bizarre planet. When she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, the blonde Major looked up into Gandalf's kind eyes and she wondered how she could have ever doubted him. The Elves she was still a bit unsure of, especially Haldir, but this old man, when he looked at her, it was as if she was unable to think of anything bad. Warmth and kindness leaked into her soul with the contact of his hand and she found herself sighing at the predicament she was in.  
  
"I think it is time you told me a bit about yourself, young lion, and where you have come from. For something tells me you have quite a tale to tell."  
  
Unable to keep his gaze, she looked down, wondering how much to tell him. Somewhere inside of her knew it would just be easier to tell this powerful old man everything, even though she did not know him, did not know where in the universe she was. But all she did know was that she was away from Earth, away from Jack, Daniel and the others, and even away from her father and the Tok'ra.  
  
"Tell me." Gandalf said gently, sitting down next to her on the bed.  
  
And god help her.. she did.  
  
****  
  
A few hours later, Sam found herself walking silently through the many gardens of Lothlórien. Gandalf was at her side as they walked slowly between towering tree trunks, her now bare feet crushing the soft, warm grass beneath her feet. As they made their way through the heart of the hidden Kingdom, Sam kept her head down, deeply engrossed on the ground as she walked. That way she found it easier to imagine the four imposing yet loving forms of the men she wanted to be walking beside her on the soft grass as she went to meet her fate.  
  
She could feel them as if they were really there. Jack would be one of side of her, instead of Gandalf, and Daniel on her other; both of her dear friends ready to protect her with everything they could. The rest of her men, Teal'c and Jonas, would be on the fringes, but protecting and giving her strength all the same. Oh, how she wanted them all here with her now.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye she saw them, just as she knew she would. They came in groups. Many, many groups of tall grave men and beautiful, golden haired woman to come and stand on the borders of the garden pathway her and the old wizard were gliding down silently. They lined the pathway eventually, the elvish men and woman of Lórien, to watch her pass them as she made her way towards her fate, they unfathomable eyes following her with impartial gaze. They were golden haired, beautiful eyed and regally grave so greatly that it almost brought tears to her eyes to behold them.  
  
They said nothing, did nothing, as she passed, with only Gandalf at her side, until they came to the start of a flight of stairs so great that Sam gasped, craning her neck backwards to see the end. But she could not, for there was none, they only got lost of the pale, misty shadows of the great trees that blanketed them. But standing there, surrounded by Elves, the mists of Lórien suddenly cleared and released their hidden brilliance to the world.  
  
And it was then, as she stood deep within Lórien, that Samantha Carter first behead the splendour of Caras Galadhon, the City of the Trees, and the last ancient heart of a realm that existed long again, beyond thought and dreams.  
  
It was as if Sam had suddenly forgotten how to breathe. Forgetting the silent, noble crowd behind and around her, and even Gandalf, she took a step forward to view the city as few of her kind had done before. Before her was a tall, great emerald-green wall which surrounded what Sam could only just make out to be a vast hill, on which the trunks of some of the tallest trees Sam had ever beheld were nestled deep within the earth.  
  
Looking up, she saw that in those trees was Caras Galadhon, the greatest city of the Elves of Middle-Earth. It was nestled within the many branches, snug and protected from the outside world. Sam could easily see the thousands of silver, green and gold lights that filtered through the city, glowing in the everlasting mists and shadows of Lórien.  
  
It was then that Sam felt something so profound that she had never experienced it before. Suddenly she knew how Daniel had felt upon first viewing Abydos, how Teal'c felt about Chulak, and hell, even how the Colonel felt about his beloved cabin in Minnesota.  
  
It was in that instant that Sam Carter found home.  
  
****  
  
"You have come to Lothlórien, mortal, under the protection of Gandalf the Grey, but not with the blessing of my lady, for which purpose we have called you to us. Lothlórien is a sacred city, free from the plagues and death of Man, yet here you stand before us, alive and well as can be of your kind. From which do you speak?"  
  
The voice of the man before her fell upon Sam's ears like a mighty sword; deep and swift. Instantly, she felt herself fall to her knees as the awesome power in the voice overcame her. She didn't know what made her do it, really, but her legs seemed not to listen to the rest of her body and did it on their own. The chamber in which she was in fell silent, the many figures seated around the windows all staring down at her curiously as they waited to see what their Lord would do.  
  
Sam was waiting too, mentally cursing herself in disbelief, and she felt her body start to shake with the tension. Suddenly, she felt a cold, slender finger place itself under her chin and none to gently force her face upwards. Blinking a few times, Sam gazed into the depths of Lord Celeborn's everlasting eyes and found thousands of years of memory hidden behind the blue walls. She felt the Elvish King search her soul with his very gaze and was powerless to look away. Indeed, she did not want to look away, for she felt all her mortal sins would be blessed within his eyes.  
  
After a time, Celeborn slowly closed his eyes and gave a small sigh, reaching down to help her to her feet with the gentleness of a king. Then he left her and made his way back towards his lady where they both then stood, looking down upon her, deciding what to do with her.  
  
Feeling a buried strength suddenly begin to flow within her bones, Sam looked up and proudly met their gaze. She was a human, a warrior of the SGC, and there was no way she was going to be looked down upon by these aliens, if that was indeed what they were. She straightened her back, put her hands at her side and met them full on, like a soldier, and she knew Jack would be proud of her.  
  
"She has found hidden strength, my love." said Galadriel clearly, and Sam looked up at the tall woman before her.  
  
Both Galadriel and Celeborn were tall elves, even by what Sam considered normal standards. Both were incomparably beautiful in a way she had never seen before. It was as if the very sun flowed out of their eyes and bathed the world in its splendour. They were together clad entirety in white robes encrusted with gems, and the lady's hair was of a deep, deep gold and fell to her waist in waves. The hair of the lord was a clear silver and straight as an arrow. They were ageless, as old as the earth itself and this could only been seen by gazing in to their eyes, from which the history of Middle- Earth could basically be seen playing before you.  
  
Taking a step towards the majestic pair, Sam lifted her head and spoke in a clear voice just as Gandalf had told her to. "I am Samantha Carter of Earth, and I mean your majesties no harm. I am indeed a guest in your beautiful land, and I come with no blessing, at which I give my heartfelt regret. It was not my intention."  
  
Taking a deep breath, and remembering what Gandalf had told her earlier about this place, she continued. "I know now that you also, mean me no harm, and I offer my thanks. I will readily tell you whatever you wish to know about myself and my land, and all I ask is that I would be given the same opportunity."  
  
She stopped, holding her breath for their reaction, and wondering if this day was going to be her last.  
  
It was Galadriel who answered, in a way. She slowly took a step forward, leaving Celeborn to gaze after her serenely, and came to stand before the fellow blonde human, causing Sam to look up to meet her gaze. They stared at each other for a while, the woman and the elf Queen, before Galadriel suddenly smiled so brilliantly that Sam swallowed the lump in her throat.  
  
She reached up with her bejewelled hand and rested the back of it against Sam's check and Sam felt the skin tingle at the touch. She wondered if the spot would ever feel the same again.  
  
Slowly, yet lovingly, the elf let her hand drop from Sam's face and fall to her side silently. She looked down at Sam kindly.  
  
"Welcome, Samantha Carter, young lion of Gandalf the Grey, to Lothlórien. Let it be known within this realm that you will always be welcome in peace or in peril. Let this be your haven until you find your way home, wherever that may be."  
  
She smiled again, radiantly, and then reached down to take Sam's hand in hers.  
  
"A feast will be prepared in your honour, and you will tell us all about your land, and your travels, and we will decide whether you are worthy of our tales."  
  
****  
  
Hours later, Sam again stood in her spacious chamber with tall windows that acted as walls, her now bare arms resting on the windowsill, gazing out into the misty legions of her new home among the trees.  
  
Frankly, she felt like an Ewok.  
  
That thought brought a ghost of a smile to her lips before it vanished on the wind as the full extend of the last few days finally hit her. Feeling a sob getting lodged in her throat, Sam rested her elbows on the windowsill and let her head fall into her hands as everything hit her at once.  
  
She was stranded, for what was likely the unforeseeable future, as nobody here seemed to have heard of anything even slightly resembling a Stargate and she was alone. How she wished Daniel or Jonas would suddenly run through the doorway, or Teal'c would appear at her side, silent as ever. But most of all, she wanted Jack, Colonel O'Neill no longer, to come bounding into the room, even if it was slightly after Daniel and Jonas, rush up to her side and give her a big hug and tell her that they were getting her out of here.  
  
Oh, she loved Lórien. Possibly more than she ever should, but she just wished the others were here to share it with her. She could just see Daniel's expressions if he saw this place. He would be over the moon, literally.  
  
God, she hoped they were okay.  
  
Jack was going to kill her if he ever found her again. The arrival of that abrupt thought made her jerk back from the window in shock, and make her way over to the large bed. Plopping down on the soft silver covers, Sam unconsciously crossed her arms across her chest, wondering where that had come from.  
  
But it was true; there was no denying that. They had only been seeing each other for a few months, in secret as well, and she could just imagine what he was going through right now. There was a distinct possibility that they thought she was dead, swallowed up by the gate too soon, never to be returned. Closing her eyes, she knew that that was only if they had all survived as well.  
  
Firmly, she told herself that of course they had. It was only her that Gandalf had found where the Stargate had spat her out, wasn't it? There was no one else there with her. So the only thing that could mean was that they had survived, were back on Earth, while she was stranded here, in the middle of nowhere.  
  
And pregnant.  
  
Just bloody great.  
  
Moaning, Sam flopped back onto her back and covered her bare arm across her eyes, unable to deny the truth that she was royally screwed. Mentally kicking herself, she questioned her judgement in telling Jack just as much as she scolded herself for not telling Janet. The second had a fairly easy answer.  
  
She had known that if Janet knew she was pregnant, there was no way she would have allowed her to go to Cimmera with the rest of her team, just as much as she had known that it would mean the end of her and Jack's intense hidden romance of the last few months. Everything would change, there was no way it couldn't with people having to be told that she was having Jack's baby.  
  
Daniel would be shocked, stunned, amazed, delighted.. then annoyed that they hadn't told him earlier. Probably the same with Jonas.  
  
Teal'c.well, Sam wasn't so sure. He would be happy for them, she knew that much, and she had the sneaking suspicion that Teal'c would just love to train a child from her and Jack.  
  
But Hammond and her father.. they would be disappointed in them, that was obvious.  
  
It was for that reason mostly that she hadn't told Janet two days ago when she found out she was pregnant. She knew Janet would be duty bound to tell Hammond, and it was bound to get back to her father either way. But after her little 'accident' a few days ago concerning her and Jack in her lab, she had made excuse and excuse and eventually gotten out of her pre-mission physical so Janet hadn't found out either way.  
  
But telling Jack, well, that had been the easiest part of all. She couldn't deny the fact that she was happy to be having his baby; actually, she was over the moon, even if the timing was a little off. And it seemed that he had felt the exact same way. She knew that she would always remember his facial expression as she marched into his office that very morning, an hour before their mission was expected to begin, and announced the fact, knowing that the cameras in the room would be off for the next 10 minutes.  
  
His mouth had done a very good impersonation of a goldfish for a few seconds before he slowly began to smile. And Smile. And smile, until the fact that they were due for a mission had struck him hard.  
  
But Sam had been expecting this, and quickly stopped his protest, saying that under no circumstance was she missing the trip to Cimmera. Patiently she explained to him that there was no way travelling through the Stargate would affect the baby, (why should it when pregnant woman had probably been travelling through it for thousands of years?) and it was a peaceful mission to a friendly planet.  
  
Finally, Jack had seen the sense in the matter and let it drop, making Sam promise that they were going to sit down and have a nice long chat when they got back to the SGC about what they were going to do with their futures.  
  
But that had never come.  
  
So here she was, stuck in Lothlórien with the elves and an odd old wizard, while Jack was back on Earth probably worried to death about hers and the baby's fate.  
  
It was a cruel outcome on both sides.  
  
But it was one that she was going to make the best out of, she suddenly decided, sitting up straight on the bed. She was not going to stay here, wallowing in her own misery. She was going to make the best out of her life now for her and her baby, until she found the Stargate and got out of here back to the SGC. She would do that for Jack.  
  
Filled with new resolve, she got off the bed and went back to the window, gazing up into the misty treetops of Lórien, seeing the black night sky peaking in from between the trees. They had accepted her in Lothlórien, so this was where she was going to stay until she could go home. She would be protected from the outside world, her baby would be protected, and that was what she desperately needed at this moment, stuck on a world that she knew nothing about.  
  
But she knew one thing, she decided, as she watched the elves go about their business silently below her within the landings in the tree branches.  
  
And that was that she would find a way home, even if it took her entire life to do it.  
  
*** 


	3. The Ranger

Part Three:  
  
Then all the Captains of the West cried aloud, for their hearts were filled with a new hope in the midst of darkness. Out from the beleaguered hills Knights of Gondor, Riders of Rohan, Dúnedain of the North, close-serried companies, drove against their wavering foes, piercing the press with the thrust of bitter spears. But Gandalf lifted up his arms and called once more in a clear voice: "Stand, Men of the West! Stand and wait! This is the hour of their doom!"  
  
The battle of the Cormallen Fields, "The Return of the King"  
  
*****  
  
As she left her chamber early one morning, winding her way down the many stairs of Lothlórien to get to the very bottom of the city, Sam couldn't believe she had been in Lórien for almost two months. It seemed more like a lifetime. Two long months of settling into her new life away from home, away from her friends and family and away from Jack. She wondered if they were still searching for her, if they still thought she was alive somewhere, or if Hammond had been forced to declare her KIA.  
  
In a way she hoped so. That way at least they could all get some closure until she found her own way home to them again.  
  
With that depressing thought in mind, the woman made the last little jump off the last step of the staircase she was on onto the soft green grass beneath her bare feet. Like the elves she was living with, Sam had taken to wearing their clothing while in Lothlórien. She was now dressed in a long flowing white robe, which joined at the chest to make it into a gown like garment. Her feet were bare, something that Sam found she enjoyed more than she thought she ever would. But the grounds of Lórien were soft and warm, and she knew her feet wouldn't be damaged walking that way.  
  
The past few months had been some of the strangest of Sam's life. She just wasn't used to having nothing to do all day. At first, she spent the majority of her time in the company of Gandalf or Galadriel, who for some peculiar Sam didn't want to mull over, had taken the young mortal under her wing and they would spent their days together, walking through Galadriel's gardens or just sitting in her apartments talking of the histories of Middle-Earth and trading legends of their different worlds. In Galadriel Sam realised she had found someone in whom she could tell all, and not have to feel guilty that she was giving away USAF secrets of some kind.  
  
Galadriel had accepted this and understood Sam's need to talk to someone about everything that was plaguing her mind. She was one of the first people the Major had told about her pregnancy, only to find that the elf had known all along. Galadriel was looking forward to the birth of Sam's child, for reasons Sam didn't know, but suspected it had been many thousands of years since she had had a child to fuss over, if that was what elves did. Together, the companions would ponder over names for the infant, and it was here that Sam really started missing Janet. Here in Lothlórien, she had no way of knowing if her child was going to be a boy or a girl, no way of knowing if everything was progressing as smoothly as it should be, she just had to leave everything to the fates and luck.  
  
Reaching down unconsciously, Sam rested her hand on the soft silk-like fabric covering her belly, trying to feel the child inside. She had started to gain a lot of weight recently, and it wouldn't be long before her pregnancy became very noticeable. Not that she had to worry about that, for all the elves here in Lothlórien seemed to know she was pregnant anyway. But deep in her heart, she wished Jack were here to see this. He would be devastated to know later in life that he hadn't been there as their baby grew, not to see how her body changed in shape as they child made itself comfortable as possible in its temporary home.  
  
Having a sigh of regret, she turned around the trunk of an enormous tree and made her way further into the gardens of Lórien..only to find the spot she was heading for already taken by another.  
  
So surprised was she at finding someone else in her private pondering spot, that Sam immediately froze, her hand reaching up to lean on the tree trunk. Her eyes wide, she gazed at the dark haired man who was idly walking around the garden, his head down, eyes glued to the grass, hands behind his back. He hadn't seemed to notice her, at least, and it was because of this that Sam silently began to turn around and leave, not wanting to disturb the young man, deep in thought in her garden.  
  
"Stop!" an insistent voice said from behind her and Sam flinched, not used to being ordered around like that since she left the SGC. Not turning around, her hand still on the tree trunk, she just stood there, hearing the man come closer and closer, not knowing what she should do.  
  
"I'm very sorry, my lady, if I disturbed you."  
  
Frowning at the odd lit to his voice, not hearing the normal accent of the Lórien elves, Sam slowly began to turn around, her curiosity building about this dark haired man who looked to be so far away from home. But the figure she came face to face with wasn't quite what she had been expecting.  
  
He was about the same age as her, but his face had been lined over the years by which Sam guessed was a mixture of responsibility and worry. He had longish, shaggy dark hair and a pair of the gentlest grey eyes Sam had ever seen. Dressed in worn, rugged brown leather, a long sharp sword strapped to his waist, Sam was stunned at how different he looked to the regal, graceful elves she was living with.  
  
Stumped, she didn't have a clue what to say to this man standing before her, his hand out stretched. It was only then that Sam noticed a large ring on one of his fingers, sparkling in the light. As her eyes dropped to the ring to get a better look, he obviously saw what she was staring at for he quickly pulled his hand away and hid it in the folds of the black cloak he wore over his shoulders.  
  
"I say again, my lady, I did not mean to disturb your walking. I thought none else knew about this garden, for if I did, I would never had thought to intrude."  
  
Sam frowned. "Look, its fine. You were there first, I can go find somewhere else to sit, don't worry about it."  
  
The young man tilted his head to the side and stared at her attentively as he heard her words. Suddenly he evidently came to some kind of conclusion for his eyes opened wide ever so slightly in surprise. "You are no elf," he murmured, seemingly to himself.  
  
Sam kept on frowning. "No, I'm not." was all she said, not prepared to spill the beans on who she was until she knew a little more about this man.  
  
The man looked to be as bewildered as she was and Sam suddenly found the situation slightly hilarious. Unable to stop the grin that turned her lips, she instead looked down, trying to hide the fact that she found him funny. But she was obviously too late, for she noticed instantly that he was laughing silently and quickly jerked her head up to stare at him in astonishment.  
  
"It seems we have come to a stalemate, my lady," said the man. "Perhaps we could both share the garden. Would that satisfy?" He didn't wait for her answer, instead turning right around and going back to the hidden valley beneath the trees, obviously expecting her to follow him.  
  
She did.  
  
She found him sitting on a garden seat, running a stray leaf through his fingers as he waited for her. He looked up as she drew closer and she could see the confusion plainly in his eyes as to what one of his kind was doing in the Elvish city when she should be with her kin.  
  
She hesitantly sat down next to him, not knowing what to say. "Who are you, my lady? What is your business in Lothlórien?"  
  
Even though she found his opening slightly rude, Sam answered as vaguely as she could. "My name is Samantha and I am a guest in Lórien with the blessing of Galadriel. That is all you should want to know. Who are you?" The last part came out before she could stop it and she blinked at her own rudeness. But the man obviously didn't seem to mind for he grinned at her answer.  
  
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and I too, am a guest in this fair city, although I clearly come here more often than you for I have never set eyes on you before, and Lothlórien is almost my second home." He said it clearly, calmly and held no pretence to know that she would be shocked by his words.  
  
She was, but tried to hide the fact. "You are well known in Lórien?" she asked, curious. In the two months she had been in Lothlórien she had seen or heard no humans save for Gandalf, if the old wizard could even be called that because of his great age, which made him very un-human to Sam.  
  
Aragorn nodded his head. "That I am. In the Elvish tongue I am known as Estel, "Hope", and these great people have for long been my kin." Looking up, he scanned the woodland glen they were sitting in, and it was then that Sam saw his eyes grow soft, and a great love was seen there.  
  
"Some say I am more Elf than Man, but I do not have much to say on that matter, for I fear that it is true." He stole a look at her out of the corner of his eye to gage her reaction, and was surprised to see her calm, composed and thoughtful, as if she was thinking this over in her head.  
  
Aragorn was confused about the tall blonde woman at his side, wondering what the real reason was for her stay in Lothlórien and where she had come from. Her speech was unusual for that of Man, and he could positively say that in all his vast travels over the lands of Middle-Earth, he had never heard words spoken how she used them. Looking at her more closely, undetected, he took in the little details that made her who she was.  
  
She was dressed in elvish fashion, this he noticed instantly, and wondered about its significance. It was not often that a mortal was seen in the Elven glens, whether that be Lothlórien or Rivendell, and they usually kept their own clothing, as he was now. Galadriel and Celeborn had long given up supplying him with clothing of their people, for they knew he would not take them, for he was more comfortable in the clothing of the Dúnedain, his people, the Rangers of the Northern lands.  
  
Her short hair bemused him also, for he knew few women who would voluntarily where their hair that way. Instantly, his mind travelled to the woman who had long filled his thoughts. Her dark featured face swam into view so clearly that he squeezed his eyes closed briefly to clear the vision of the dark princess that ruled his heart.  
  
"Arwen." he murmured absently, causing the blonde woman to turn around and glance at him inquisitively. Quickly, Aragorn shook his head to tell her not to pry.  
  
"So why are you really in Lothlórien, my lady?" he asked, wondering if she was going to be honest with him.  
  
Sam sighed. She was getting quite sick of explaining herself to all the people she had met in the last few months, and it seemed that she was going to be doing it again shortly. "I was brought here by Gandalf the Grey, although I don't remember it, for I was unconscious for the journey. He found me badly hurt and took me to Galadriel to see if she could help me. That was two months ago and I've been here ever since," she concluded honestly, not having the energy to lie to the man.  
  
"Gandalf!" Aragorn explained in surprise, and he looked around the garden glen suddenly as if he expected to see the old wizard appear any second. "This is good tidings indeed, Samantha," he murmured. "For the Grey One is a very good friend of mine and I would very much like to see him again. It has truly been to long since our last meeting."  
  
Sam was stunned and she stared at the man, abruptly realising that there was more to him than she first thought.  
  
"You know Gandalf?" she asked, wondering if there was anyone that the old wizard didn't know. In the last two months, in which Sam had spent a great deal of time with her saviour, she had heard all the elves greet Gandalf by name and she got the impression that he came to Lothlórien often.  
  
He would be leaving soon, of this Sam was sure. In the last few days he had become almost restless, eager to leave Lórien. Sam had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason he had lingered so long in the elvish city was because of her, that he had wanted to see how she feared in her recovery from her fall and how she found her new life away from home.  
  
The thought of Gandalf leaving brought a great deal of sadness to her heart, for the woman and the old wizard had grown close in such a short time. She wondered where he would be going, what people he would be seeing in his travels through this mysterious land. She wished fervently that she could accompany him, but knew that it would be impossible in her condition. The wizard hadn't seemed surprised at her pregnancy, not asking any questions. But he had insisted that she stay in Lothlórien until the baby was born, so that it would have the blessing of Galadriel though its life.  
  
Aragorn laughed heartedly. "I do indeed. For many, many years we have travelled together, the grey wizard and I."  
  
Sam found herself drawn to the vibrant young man against her will. "Really? Is that why you are in Lothlórien now?" she asked, fascinated.  
  
He shook his head. "No, it is not. I bring a message from Elrond, Master of Rivendell, to the Lady of the Wood." Then his face clouded, and he looked worried again, and very, very tired. "There are dark times coming, my lady. Dark times indeed. I feel that soon the world will never quite be the same again."  
  
Startled by such a morbid speech coming from him, Sam stared at him for a second and was shocked to find the burden of responsibility laid heavily on his broad shoulders. It was then that she wondered if the land she had come to was as safe and peaceful as she had at first thought. For the last two months she had been tucked away safely in Lothlórien, hidden from the rest of this foreign world, and she had started to forget that it existed at all.  
  
Abruptly Aragorn stood, causing Sam to crane her neck to look up at him. When she did she found that he was smiling down at her warmly and he extended his hand to help her up.  
  
"The time for talking has past. I must see Gandalf." He looked at her keenly. "Will you take me to him?"  
  
Sam nodded. "Of course." Then she faulted, the words she wanted to say stuck in her throat. She looked down at the ground, unable to meet his gaze. Finally, she snuck a peak at his face and the words came out softly, hesitantly, as if she expected him to rebuke her.  
  
"Will I see you again?" His eyebrows shot up at her statement and she quickly tried again, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. "Its just I don't know many people here in Lórien, except Gandalf and Galadriel and few others, and well, I get quite lonely, waiting for this one to appear." She put her hand on her tummy so he couldn't help but realise what she was talking about.  
  
If he seemed surprised at her revelation he hid it well, and his eyes grew kind as he looked down at her. "If you seek my company during my stay in Lothlórien then I am honoured, Samantha, for I feel that we could be very good friends."  
  
She looked up at him, touched by his words, and for the first time in two months the pain of loosing her family and friends.. and Jack, seemed to lessen a little bit.  
  
Not much, but a bit.  
  
And looking into Aragorn's deep, dark eyes, Sam realised that there was someone who he, also, wished to be with and could not, and she wondered if he sought this friendship as much as her, to lessen the pain of separation as much as possible until their hearts could find home.  
  
In the very bottom of her heart, where her most passionate feelings lay..she hoped so, for she too, felt that they could become very close friends if they were able to. Something about this strong young man reminded her so much about Jack that it was startling.  
  
And until she could find home, and until he was able to find his greatest love, they would help each other with the companionship and kindness that the greatest friendships could provide.  
  
*** 


	4. Gandalf's Tale

"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king."  
  
Gandalf's tale of Aragorn Telcontar. "The Fellowship of the Ring."  
  
****  
  
Sam and Aragorn found Gandalf in his chamber, sitting at a large wooden desk that looked very out of place with the rest of the elvish furniture. It was cluttered high with piles of musty looking parchment with frayed corners and ink spots from one end to the other. Standing in the doorway, Sam reached up and knocked politely, causing the old Wizard to look up to see who his visitors were. He smiled brightly when he saw Sam but then opened his eyes in amazement when he caught sight of Aragorn at her side.  
  
Jumping up remarkably quickly for a man of his age, he hurried over to them and all put pulled the young man into a bear hug as they met in the centre of the room. Both men laughing joyfully they broke apart slowly and gripped arms while Sam stood off to the side, positively beaming.  
  
"So it is you, Aragorn!" Gandalf cried. "Celeborn said they had a visitor from Rivendell, but I had thought it would be either Elladan or Elrohir. What brings you to Lothlórien, my friend?" he asked, ushering both of them over to a group of chairs by the open window.  
  
"I bring grave news for the Lady Galadriel, Gandalf." Aragorn said seriously as he sat down. Not knowing if she was actually welcome or not, Sam did the same and began to listen to their conversation intensively, eager for news of the outside world.  
  
Gandalf flashed Sam a quick, calculating glance as Aragorn said this but continued anyway. He nodded his head at the other man, as if he has been expecting this. "Indeed. Has the fiend escaped us once again?" Looking up in surprise at his tone, Sam was shocked to find Gandalf looking and sounding quite grim.  
  
Aragorn grimaced. "That he has, Grey One. I searched all through Mirkwood with the aid of the elf Legolas, but it was all in vane, for the creature Gollum eludes us still." He sounded bitter.  
  
All but forgetting Sam was in the room with them, Gandalf gave a great sigh and looked out the window to the peacefulness of the Lórien woods, his mind plagued by the troubles of others. Aragorn and himself had been searching for the creature Gollum for the best part of the past four years now, but were still unable to catch the slithering beast. But it was imperative that they catch him for he was the one who held the fate of a very special race of people in his clutches, one way or another. If he told what he knew to the wrong people.. then all would be lost.  
  
Gollum had long been a source of frustration on Gandalf's part, for a number of reasons. Firstly, that he didn't realise instantly what a problem the deformed creature was going to have on the future of not only the Hobbits of the Shire, but also the whole of Middle-Earth.  
  
He had to be caught, and quickly.  
  
So all he, Aragorn and their companions could do was continue to search for him, and hope desperately that they find him before the enemy did.  
  
Turning his head slightly, he regarded the young woman sitting with them with a look of tender affection, seeing how she was anxiously trying to follow the conversation but getting hopefully lost in the process. In the past few months, he had found himself growing very fond of Samantha, to his slight surprise and dismay. It wasn't since Frodo that he had found himself drawn into a friendship with a lesser being, and the fact disturbed him somewhat. He would be leaving soon, now sooner than he had planned with the sudden arrival of Aragorn to Lórien. There were things to be done, people to see and question, and that wouldn't get accomplished here in the City of the Trees.  
  
But strangely, he found himself drawn to stay here with her, to help ease her transition into life with the elves, but knew he could not. Her child was a source of concern to him also, especially as she was vague concerning the matter of the baby's father. He wondered who he was, where he was now, and what kind of coward he was to seemingly abandon the mother of his child to the clutches of the enemy. For surely, that was where she would have found herself if he had not gotten to her first, of this he had no doubt. Sauron and his people would have swooped down and gathered up the injured woman before she could cried out for help. Mysterious happenings in Middle- Earth had always held his attention.  
  
But musing over her fate in his familiar chamber in Lothlórien, while discussing matters of Gollum with Aragorn with her listening carefully probably was not a very good idea.  
  
Clearing his throat, Gandalf reached over and touched Aragorn's sleeve lightly. "Do not dismay, Estel," he said reassuringly, using Aragorn's elvish name. "We will find him in the end."  
  
Aragorn sighed, and looked down at his hands. Then, as if he couldn't sit still with all that was pestering his mind, the tall man jumped up from the seat and started to pace the room, not seeing Sam's look of bewilderment she shot Gandalf, hoping for an explanation for the other man's actions. But the Wizard just shook his head slightly and Sam backed down, dropping the matter instantly.  
  
"But will it be soon enough to save the Hobbits, Gandalf?" he cried, turning back to face the old Wizard. "The guard on the Shire is doubling as we speak, but for how long with Gollum stay silent? How long will the enemy allow him to do so?"  
  
To this, Gandalf had no answer, for no one, not even one as himself from the powerful Istari, could see into the future to see the future of the Shire and the Ring.  
  
No one save Galadriel, but that was no longer an option. The White Lady had already given them her answer concerning the matter, and neither Gandalf nor anyone else would press her further. What was to happen would, and there wasn't a thing they could do to stop it except be prepared for the worst.  
  
Silence filled the room and Sam looked anxiously between the men, wondering what was happening. Gandalf felt quite sorry for her, and promised himself he would sit her down later and explain everything. There wasn't any point hiding it from her. Being as close as she was to Galadriel, it was likely she would find out everything that was happening anyway, but Gandalf would prefer if he was the one who told her. It was affect her too, in the end, and her baby, so she had as good a right to know as anybody.  
  
"Where will you go next?" Gandalf asked the younger man, who had again started to pace the room. Aragorn shot him a quick glance at this, and his face softened to one filled with resignation. Aragorn had been searching the Wilds for Gollum for many years, and it was likely that his quest would not end until the creature was either in the custody of the Dúnedain or the elves, or dead.  
  
"Rhovanion, I suspect." he said quietly and Gandalf regarded him sadly, feeling deep sympathy for the man who spent so much of his time alone.  
  
"Be careful there, Aragorn." He warned. "There are beasts who would not falter as they cut you down."  
  
With that, the old man slowly got up from his chair and made his way over to Sam, who still hadn't said a word. She looked very troubled as she tried to sort out everything she had heard. Helping her to her feet, mindful of her swollen belly, Gandalf cupped one of the blonde woman's cheeks and smiled at her kindly.  
  
"Do not burden yourself with the troubles of others just now, Samantha," he told her gently, knowing full well that Aragorn was watching them keenly. "Go to Galadriel, she will help ease your mind." Taking the silent woman by the arm, he led her to the door.  
  
"Fill you thoughts with the Little One, my dear. Let it bring you happiness in times of woe." He said softly, tapping her rounded stomach fondly.  
  
Sam glanced once at Aragorn, he tipped his head to her in farewell, before rested again on Gandalf. She gave him one long last look before turning around and walking down the corridor. Both men could hear the swishing of her robes long after she left their company.  
  
"She grows confused, Gandalf." Aragorn said frankly as the man turned from the door and walked back towards his desk. Sitting down, he rested his chin in his hands and stared at the door, not blinking.  
  
"I feel for her, I truly do," the Wizard murmured and gave a great sigh.  
  
"What made you bring her to Lothlórien to begin with, my friend? Surely she would have been better in Gondor or Rohan, if indeed that is where she is from." With that he tilted his head and nodded at his own words. "She has the look of Rohan in her, do you not agree?" Putting his hands behind his back, the Ranger regarded the Wizard bluntly, as if he knew there was more to it than what he was being told.  
  
Gandalf shook his head, knowing this had been coming from the moment the two of them had walked in the room together. There wasn't much you could get past Aragorn, and the real reason for a strange-talking mortal being in Lórien wasn't one of them.  
  
"She said you found her injured and brought her to Galadriel. Was she so badly hurt her own people could not tend to her? Why had it to be elvish medicine?" The Ranger continued, throwing a concerned look at his friend at the desk.  
  
"It was not the medicines, Aragorn." Gandalf said quietly, finally admitting what he had sworn to keep secret. Looking up at the dark haired young man, he said honestly, "Her people are not from Middle-Earth."  
  
Aragorn fell silent with the Wizard's words but grew confused. "How can that be?" he asked softly, pondering over what that could mean.  
  
"Exactly what I say, my friend. She is not from Middle-Earth, and nor are her people. She did not know of the existence of our home until she arrived here herself. It is my belief that she comes from a place far from here, yet where we can never reach, not in this life time or the next."  
  
Aragorn again sat down and turned his worried face to the Wizard's, his hands gathered in his lap. "Mayhap she is shade, a spirit of a people long past?" he said, desperately trying to understand what Gandalf was telling him. He had known there was something strange about his new friend the moment he had set eyes on her in the garden, and here it was, becoming true before his very eyes.  
  
She had been to guarded on her identity to be completely innocent, he had originally thought, but then changed his mind soon after hearing her tale of Gandalf. Aragorn would trust the Wizard with his life, so if he had seen fit to take her under his protection, there was nothing the Ranger would say about it.  
  
"No, she is as Mortal as you are, Estel." Gandalf said, then his eyes twinkled unexpectedly. "Less, probably."  
  
Aragorn shot him a dirty look at that before reaching up to rub the side of his bristled face warily. "I think you should tell me all, Grey One, then we should decide what is to be done with her."  
  
But Gandalf just shook his head. "Nothing is to be done with her, Aragorn. She has been given the protection of Celeborn and the Lady of the Wood, so it is too late anyhow. But what would you do, if you had the chance? She is a young woman, soon to be heavy with child, lost in this land, unable to return to her kin in her own. She will be given shelter here until the child is born, for that is the wish of Galadriel."  
  
Aragorn shot him a stern glance. "And afterwards? What is to be done with her then? You must have realised you cannot keep her hidden here forever, Gandalf. Her presence will become known within the other Elven realms before the season is out; of this I have no doubt. Elrond, at least, will want to see her, if indeed what she says is true. Another world? This is mysterious tidings, undeniably."  
  
Gandalf sighed in regret. "I had planned to take her with me after the child is born, but I do not see her leaving her child with strangers."  
  
Aragorn looked at him in astonishment at this news. "Take her with you?" he asked, stunned. "Take her where? To the Shire? To Minas Tirith?" He shook his head gravely. "No indeed, Gandalf, this is folly. You can not expect Gondor to accept her into their midst is she comes with you, and as what? Your apprentice?"  
  
"She should go to Rohan. Théoden at least, would receive her if it were with your blessing. Am I right to believe the Lady Éowyn has recently come of age? Samantha would be a fine companion for the young Lady of Rohan."  
  
But Gandalf just waved his hand at him and shook his head determinedly. "No, Aragorn, my friend. Samantha will stay in Lothlórien until the child is born, and if I have my way, afterwards as well."  
  
As Aragorn was silent at this, Gandalf risked a glance across at him to gage his reaction. But the Ranger just looked concerned. But for whom Gandalf was not sure. Samantha or Lothlórien?  
  
Seeing that it was mostly distress on Samantha's behalf, not the elves, Gandalf's face softened. "She will be protected here, Aragorn, you must see this. Celeborn will allow none to harm her. And after her baby is born, we will again decide what is to be done. She must have a say in the matter, you understand. She is a strong one, and will not be bent easily."  
  
A look of respect filled his eyes and Aragorn watched him cautiously. "I think I am right to suspect she would enjoy travelling with me through Middle-Earth, and would probably take the child with her, if possible."  
  
He looked at Aragorn with an expression of sadness. "You of all people know that the freedom to travel unguarded will soon be lost, why not allow her to see her new world until she can no longer do so? Darkness is coming; my friend, and I do not see a secure future for our lands if something is not done."  
  
He turned and again looked out the window, following a floating pearly leaf with his gaze as it soared past the window.  
  
"And done soon."  
  
****  
  
Galadriel found Samantha sitting on a marble bench in one of the many patios of Caras Galadhon, the autumn winds rustling a pack of leaves around the woman's bare legs teasingly. She was sitting side on to the Elf Queen, giving her a full view of the fellow blonde woman's blossoming body; even through the loose elvish robes she wore.  
  
Her head was bend, allowing her growing hair to fall around her face in soft, wispy curls, as she concentrated on what she was holding in her hands. Looking down at the woman's lap from where she stood in the doorway leading out onto the outdoor patio, Galadriel could see Sam was twisting thin strands of silver together around each other as she skilfully crafted what she desired.  
  
The Elf smiled gently as she watched the woman nimbly bent a group of golden, leave shaped gems into the strands and, twisting it around her own arm as a barrier, fashioned the raiment of her choice. Even from the entranceway, Galadriel's keen eyes could make out the skill and texture of the feminine headpiece, and was somewhat taken aback that the Mortal had mastered the elvish skill to quickly.  
  
She was very good with her hands, was this woman, the queen decided thoughtfully as she made her presence known by stepping into the room. Sam looked up as she entered and Galadriel saw that she wasn't surprised at all by her company, she had known she was standing at the doorway the entire time.  
  
"You are troubled, Samantha." Galadriel said simply in her low toned voice as she came to sit next to her human companion. Sam didn't answer, still deftly intertwining the linked gems and silver wires together, but they could both see that her hands were shaking.  
  
Finally, after the silence had become to much to bare, the Elf reached down and covered her friend's hands in her own pearly white ones gently to still their movements. At the contact of both their skins, Sam gave a shuddering sigh and stilled, letting her shoulder's droop in defeat. Slowly and silently, Galadriel took the partly completed headpiece from the other woman's hands and sat it down next to them on the bench.  
  
Sam turned her face away onto the setting sun and closed her eyes softly, unable to meet the queen's questioning gaze. But Galadriel wouldn't have it and gently turned her face backwards with her gentle fingers.  
  
"What ails you, my friend?" she asked quietly. "Are you not happy here?"  
  
With that Sam's eyes shot open and she gave a dry, humourless laugh. "That is not even a question, my lady. You have all been nothing but kindness to me," the mortal answered, shaking her head. "And that is part of the problem."  
  
Knowing that she had to let the woman speak, the Elf remained quiet as her companion poured out her soul.  
  
But Sam just turned to the horizon again that could be made out between the bowing trees and her face crumbled heartbreakingly. Her body gave one juddering heave before Galadriel realised in sympathy that the woman was crying. She let her blonde head fall into her hands as she wept bitterly.  
  
"I just miss my friends so much, I feel like I'm being torn apart." Sam whispered, her hand falling unconsciously to her rounded tummy protectively.  
  
"You miss the father." The Queen said simply, and it wasn't a question. She had wondered about the child's other parent since Samantha had come to them in Lothlórien but had respected the woman's privacy and not asked. But she could tell that the matter hurt her a great deal.  
  
"I miss him more than anything, and it saddens me to think that he probably believes I'm dead.the baby too."  
  
Galadriel grimaced, taking in those missing parts of the hidden story for further notice. Gandalf had of course told them all how he had come across Samantha from the Ring, but the rest, of which Sam had tried to explain, just didn't make any sense. She talked of hollow mountains and warring peoples, and gateways that could take you to other lands. It all sounded very fantastical to the Elves, but of its truthfulness they had no doubt. Gandalf had seen it for himself.  
  
"If he truly loves you, and of this I have no doubt, he will surely know that you live, Samantha. He will know it in his heart." Galadriel said gently, trying to reassure the distressed woman but she just shook her head sadly.  
  
"You don't understand," she wept brokenly, shaking her head. "He was there, he must have seen what the gate did to me. How can he have hope after that?"  
  
Putting a white arm comfortingly over Sam's trembling shoulders, the Elf gave a squeeze and pulled her close. Bending her head down, she whispered in the other blonde ear,  
  
"There is always Hope. Even in the coldest caverns of darkness where the shadows lay, there is still Hope."  
  
Slowly, Sam lifted her head and gazed into Galadriel's pure sapphire eyes, her own eyes searching the elf's intently as if she tried to see what the other woman was telling her. But the elf just reached down and rested her hand on Sam's growing stomach lightly, and Sam followed her gaze.  
  
"You must have hope, my friend. If not for yourself, then for your babe, who without it will grow up not knowing its father." She smiled supportively at the woman, whose face was inches away from her own.  
  
"If you believe it with all your heart, then he *will* come for you. And until then, you will always have a home within my Hall, never forget that. Whatever you chose to do with your life, Lothlórien will always keep you and your kin save."  
  
Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Sam stared up at the queen keenly, her head tilted to the side thoughtfully. "I am to leave Lothlórien, my lady?" she asked, not quite believe what she was hearing. She had heard from Gandalf that the Elf could see the future, but how she did not know. Over all, Sam wasn't too sure she wanted someone else knowing her destiny.  
  
But Galadriel just smiled brilliantly and stood up, helping the other woman to her feet as well. Together, the two blondes stood in the silent patio, leaves dancing around them like music on the wind.  
  
"That is your choice, dearest friend, and yours alone. But I can see that you are meant for great things, in your world and others. Only time will tell if Middle-Earth is one of them."  
  
Then she reached down and picked up the headpiece Sam had been working on and passed it back to the sheepishly blushing woman at her side. Linking her arm with the Mortals, Galadriel began to lead them back indoors, safe in the notion that Samantha was beginning to accept her new life with the Elves, but not foolish enough to believe it would continue for long.  
  
**** 


	5. The Depths of Nadir

Here is Part 5, sorry its taken so long to get out, but RL has been a bit mental lately, lol. Thanx to everyone who has sent me reviews and feedback for this, it's a great reason to keep going at it! :D  
  
****  
  
  
  
"Nay, dear lord," she said, "that choice is long over. There is now no ship that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Númenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive."  
  
Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond, Evenstar of her people. "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen."  
  
***  
  
Jack could hear the faint beeps of the monitors as he slowly swam for consciousness. His head throbbing, he squeezed his eyes closed even thought they already were so and tried to search through the darkness for the light he knew to be there.  
  
Groaning, he turned his head to the side even as his mind awoke from slumber and images flashed before his eyes. There was something he should be doing, he mused hazily, and something he should remember..  
  
Sam.  
  
With that, his eyes fluttered swiftly and he fought against the blinding light to keep them open. Finally succeeding, he blinked at the sight that beheld him.  
  
He was in the infirmary, and as he slowly tried to push himself into a sitting position he vaguely noticed another sleeping figure in the bed beside him. Turning to the bed, he was crushed to see that it wasn't Sam at all, but Jonas.. not, of course, that that was a bad thing, but he had been hoping desperately that what he last remembered had been a nightmare, not reality.  
  
But now, as he stared at his slumbering teammate, he realised what had happened was in fact true and that Sam was gone.  
  
"No." he whispered, flinging the sheet off his body and gingerly turned to dangle his bare legs off the side of the bed. Looking around the deserted infirmary, he instantly saw Daniel in the bed on his other side, and he too, was dead to the world. But like Sam, there was no trace of Teal'c.  
  
Immediately discarding the dreaded thought that the Jaffa had gone through with Sam, for he knew adamantly that he had been behind the two of them and Jonas with Daniel, Jack came to the rapid conclusion that the Jaffa was already up and out of bed, healed from their little freefall.  
  
But where was Sam??  
  
"Oh, god," Jack murmured, panic setting in firmly enough for the man to push aside his aching body's protests and tentatively lay his feet on the ground, slowly letting them take his weight as he pushed himself off the infirmary bed, ignoring the fact that he was wearing a hospital gown that was practically backless.  
  
The room swam dangerously and Jack again squeezed his eyes closed, willing the pain in his head to go away.  
  
"Colonel, what the hell do you think your doing?"  
  
Wow, he thought.  
  
Where had that come from?  
  
He got his answer immediately when Janet Fraiser's angry face appeared before his own, and he opened his eyes a crack to see the whirlwind doctor standing with her hands on her hips, looking mad as hell. But for once, Jack wasn't going to be pushed aside by the tiny doctor, not this time.  
  
"Go away, Jan," he muttered, his hand coming out to rest on the side of Jonas's bed for balance. "I've gotta find Sam."  
  
Janet was silent for a moment as she took in what he'd said. For a second, Jack hazily wondered if Sam had actually told her friend about their relationship or not. This wasn't really the best time to be spilling the beans to the doctor that looked capable of single handedly tie him back to his bed that he was in fact, sleeping her best friend.  
  
"I know what your doing, Colonel, but I must insist that you get back into bed." Janet's tone was wavering, as if she was holding something back. Looking up quickly, Jack swallowed when he caught sight of her face. She looked like she was fighting back tears of her own.  
  
"Doc?" he asked. "What happened?"  
  
But Janet just shook her head and motioned for Jack to get back into the bed. Stunned, he let her guide his body back under the covers. When he was comfortable, she sprayed her fingers on the side of the bed, and Jack saw she was squeezing the railing so hard her knuckles were white.  
  
"She's gone, sir," she whispered loud enough for him to hear her, but her head was bent so he couldn't see her face.  
  
Gaping in disbelief, the Colonel just stared at her, wondering what the hell this meant. She must have seen the questions on his face for she quickly stood up straighter and took a step away from the bed. Still not looking at him, she crossed her arms across her chest. Jack felt a wave of sympathy for the woman. Sam was her best friend, and this couldn't be a very easy situation for her. Hell, it wasn't an easy situation for any of them.  
  
"The General will be here soon, Colonel. He can explain it better."  
  
With that, the petite Doctor all but spun on her heals and marched towards the door. Seeing her retreating figure snapped Jack out of his trance and he called out after her,  
  
"Janet?"  
  
The Doctor stopped in mid-step, her hand on the side of the door, but she still didn't turn around. Determinedly, Jack strode forward. "Please, Doc, what happened to Sam?" he asked, dreading the answer.  
  
He saw Janet's body freeze up at that, her shoulder's going tight beneath her Lab coat.  
  
"I don't know, Colonel." She whispered, her voice poignant. "None of us do."  
  
And she walked out of the silent Infirmary, leaving Jack to his horror filled thoughts of disbelief.  
  
****  
  
Three hours later, Jack had decided his life had suddenly spun into a huge nightmare. He had come to that decision the second he had caught sight of the Stargate out of the control room window where he had gone after being let out of the Infirmary by Janet in search of Teal'c.  
  
The General had come to see the other three members of SG-1 while they were still bedridden, and had sadly and quietly explained everything to them again, and what they had missed after being knocked out by the force of which the gate had thrown them off the ramp.  
  
The 'gate was still operational, but barely. St. Siler had, of course, been put in charge of all the maintenance that had to be done to get the gate up and running again, and as soon as possible, for there were three teams stranded off world and there was no way General Hammond was going to give them the all clear to come home if there was a chance the explosion could happen again. Several of the Chevrons had been scorched, if that was even possible, by the force of the blue 'fire' that had caused the gate to malfunction, and needed to be looked at. But apart from that, the only other thing that needed to be done was several safety checks before Siler gave the General the all clear.  
  
But of Sam, there was no trace.  
  
None of her team of scientist could offer any explanations as to what had been the blonde Major's fate, but all in all, it made repairs on the gate a very grave task indeed. Nobody knew what to do or say about the matter, as of course; Sam's disappearance affected a great many members of the SGC and nobody wanted to offend anybody else as they worked.  
  
But it was obvious that everybody was thinking of Colonel O'Neill and her team with sympathy over that time. To lose a team member was hard enough, but one they had been working with for so long and in such a horrific way was appalling.  
  
Nobody saw much of Sam's 'guys' over the next few days. They kept out of people's way, mostly sticking in their offices as not to be seen by anyone. Their grief was fierce and they wanted to deal with it in their own way. Teal'c and Jonas, who had become such close friends, spent their days together, both of them lost as to how to handle the situation. Daniel had gone into a delayed sense of shock the next day when Janet had finally let him out of the infirmary, as he had been the worst hurt out of the team with a broken arm. Janet told him he must have landed on it strangely when he hit the ground.  
  
But he had barely noticed the cast on his arm, he had been so wound up at the loss of Sam; he didn't know what to do. They had been like brother and sister for so long, and had formed such a close relationship over the years, mostly as they had been pushed together being on a team that had consisted of two warriors, with them being the scientists of the group, and now she was gone..  
  
Daniel remembered watching her going through the gate backwards, sharing a joke with Jack as she did, with a small, fond smile on her face before turning around. Then disaster struck and she had left them. They didn't even have a body to bury, and that was probably the worst part. There was nothing. Nothing to indicate what an amazing person she had been and how much she had meant to them all.  
  
At first, he had been in denial, clutching desperately at the slim chance that she could still be alive. General Hammond, it seems, stood with him on this one, and had ordered Cimmera dialled up and a MALP sent through. The scene in the control room when this happened was one for the history books and nobody was bound to forget it in a hurry.  
  
At first, the room had consisted of just the necessary personal, Hammond, Jonas, Teal'c and Daniel. Colonel O'Neill could not be found any where on base and when the Airman reported this to the General, a sympathetic look had appeared on his face and he had flinched visibly. But to the surprise of everyone present, except SG-1, he had let it pass and told the Airman not to worry about it, Colonel O'Neill would return when he was ready.  
  
But slowly, as the Chevrons started to spin and the gate built up, more and more personal had appeared in the room. Looking around quickly, Daniel had spied Janet standing over with Teal'c, the large Jaffa lending the small woman all the comfort he could. Then he noticed Colonel Griff and the members of SG-2 silently creep into the room, then the Marines of SG-3 and 15, none saying a word, but their presence being noticed by all.  
  
The General hadn't said anything, but had obviously known what an important event this was for the whole of the SGC. Sam Carter WAS the Stargate Command in so many ways. She had been part of it since the beginning and had involved herself in such a way that there was nobody who hadn't been touched by her disappearance. Her and SG-1 were living Legends within these walls and the General knew they everyone would do what they humanly could to get her back.  
  
It seemed that nobody even breathed when the connection to Cimmera was finally made and the planet was brought up on the screens above and before them all in the Control room. Every set of ever-increasing eyes was glued on the screens, letting the MALP discover what they all dreaded doing themselves.  
  
Finally..  
  
"General Hammond?"  
  
The voice was so out of place in the silent room that Daniel caught sight of a number of people jumping in shock when it sounded around the area. But he ignored them, taking a step towards the computers as Gairwyn's face swam into view. She looked the same as she had years before when the Cimmerians and the SGC had first made contact, but now, Danny could see that she seemed worried, and there were lines of confusion on her face.  
  
"Gairwyn?" Hammond asked in relief, speaking through the MALP. "Its very good to see you again."  
  
The woman nodded, but she still looked concerned. "It truly is, my friend. But why do you speak through your machine? Was not SG-1 meant to come to us this morning?" She shook her head and looked apologetic. "I am afraid they have missed the celebrations."  
  
As soon as she spoke those words, Daniel gave a little gasp and he knew without seeing himself that he had lost all colour on his face. Shooting a panicked glance over at Teal'c and Janet, he saw that the doctor looked stricken and her shoulder's had drooped. This had been their only Hope. That Sam had actually made it through to Cimmera alive. But now.it looked very likely that Gairwyn hadn't seen her either.  
  
Even through he was obviously having internal struggles of his own, Hammond gave a sad little ironic snort that she couldn't possibly have picked up. "I sorry, Gairwyn, but SG-1 will not be coming to the celebrations this year."  
  
Moving the MALP's head so she could see through it more comfortably, she frowned back at all the people watching her on Earth. "Why is that? Has something happened with the Enemy?" Her pretty face darkened with mention of the Goa'uld, her warrior spirit showing through.  
  
But Hammond shook his head sadly. "No, the Goa'uld have not attacked. But I'm afraid we had an accident this morning as SG-1 were travelling through the Gate to Cimmera as planned. There was an explosion and Major Carter disappeared."  
  
Gairwyn looked shocked at this news and she brought her hand up to her heart. Even through they could only see her face, the SGC personnel watching could see this, as the tops of her fingers were visible at the bottom of the screen.  
  
"Is she alright?" The dark haired woman asked lightly, as if she already knew the answer. But when Hammond shook his head, a flash of understanding flittered over her face. "And you thought that the Major could have come to Cimmera?" She shook her head sadly.  
  
"I'm afraid this has not happened. My people and I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends, SG-1, and have been watching the Stargate since early morning. No one has come through all day. Indeed, there has been no activation from the Portal for the last few days at all."  
  
She tipped her head, letting her brown hair partly cover her face for a moment before looking up, back into the screen. "I am deeply sorry for you loss, my friends. Major Carter was a true warrior and she will be mourned with honour throughout Cimmera for many years to come."  
  
Still staring into the screen, Daniel knew she was not just talking to Hammond and SG-1, but everyone in the room with them, for it seemed that even Gairwyn knew how special Sam Carter was to the SGC.  
  
Hammond cleared his throat, pushing his own emotions aside. "Thank you, Gairwyn. You honour not only Major Carter, but the whole SGC as well. Now, if you excuse us, we have matters that need to be attended to. I again regret that our conversation must be under such circumstances."  
  
Gairwyn nodded slowly, her eyes sympathetic. "Indeed, General. You will keep us abreast with any news?" The hidden question was unmistakable and Hammond nodded.  
  
Gairwyn gave Daniel and Teal'c one last lingering look and a small nod of farewell before the gate was disengaged.  
  
Silence again filled the room, no one knowing what to say, and no one knowing what they were going to do from here. What could they do? They had no idea what had happened to her.  
  
Just then, Daniel noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned slightly to face the door. His eyes met and locked with Jack O'Neill's who was standing in the doorway, his presence going unnoticed by the other people in the room. But Daniel had seen him; he didn't even know how he had seen the flash and knowing Jack was standing there. Maybe it was because they had worked together for so long, and they knew each other so well after all these years, that they could use a hidden 6th sense when it came to each other.  
  
But now, even the dimmest person imaginable could have blatantly read the emotions that were edged over Jack's face. Daniel felt his own face crumple as they stared at each other, neither knowing what to say to the other. It was obvious that Jack had been standing there for a while and had heard Gairwyn's final request, for he looked totally and completely lost, as if his soul had been ripped out of him and he had finally been forced to confront the repercussions.  
  
It was only then that Daniel finally realised just how deeply the Colonel's feelings for Sam Carter truly ran, and he felt the first tingle of panic then, staring back at his friend's face, as there was no way Daniel could know what Jack was going to do now that Sam was lost to him.  
  
Finally, Jack looked away, unable to keep his gaze locked, and with one final glance at Janet and Teal'c, who still hadn't noticed him, the Colonel turned around and silently vanished out the door, his hands stuffed in his pockets.  
  
Daniel blinked, wondering if he had ever been there at all.  
  
****  
  
The next two days were some of the worst of Jack's life.  
  
He had left the base without being excused by the General, gone home and proceeded to drown himself in as much alcohol as he could find, which considering the state of the food in his cupboards, was quite a lot.  
  
At this very moment, he was sitting out side on his back porch, a half empty bottle of Whiskey in his left hand and a small photo frame in the other. He wasn't talking, wasn't moving, just sitting there on the warm concrete with his eyes closed, letting the warm afternoon sun bask his face like faint kisses. The sun was dropping behind the bushes of his garden but he didn't care, he honestly didn't think he would have felt hail if it had come pelting down right on top of him.  
  
Bringing his hand up, he took another swig of the Whiskey and winced as it burned down his throat. Dumping the bottle down beside him on the concrete, he slowly turned his eyes towards the silver photo frame that was now lying on top of his knees. Three smiling people stared back at him and the sight of it filled Jack with such fury that he had never felt before.  
  
What right did they have to be smiling now?  
  
Pushing aside the notion to smash the frame into a million pieces, he instead reached up with a finger and traced the face of the only blonde in the picture, as if he expected it to bring her back to life. Daniel was in the photo too, along with the girl, Cassandra, and it had become one of Jack's most treasured possessions in the last few years, even through he would rather eat his own hand than admit it.  
  
Daniel was at the back, his arm around Sam who was sitting next to him on the grass, smiling into the photo as Cassandra lay on the grass in front of them, gazing up at Sam's face, her head resting on Daniel's legs while the dark haired man was running a now still hand through her long hair, all of this frozen in time.  
  
Everything had changed since this photo had been taken a few years ago, and if he thought about it, that was probably why it meant so much to him. First off Daniel had left them for universes unknown, then Cassie had ceased be the cute little innocent that she had been when first arriving on Earth. Not that he was complaining or anything, an 18 year old Cassandra was sure as hell better than a 16 year old one, and Jack liked nothing more than to spend some quality time with his little friend, deeply proud how well she had turned out, but there were times when he would remember what she had been like as 12 years old and wonder where all the years had gone.  
  
And now, Sam was gone.  
  
She had left. Disappeared without a trace, taking with her what was going to be both of their future, the said future snug and growing within her, innocent and faultless as the young Cassie had been. She had been ripped from him, they both had, and now he was alone again, wallowing in his guilt.  
  
For one brief moment, he had been happy. So very happy and their future had looked so bright it was blinding. They were together finally, after years of denial and struggle and they were about to have a baby, a token of how much their love meant to each other.  
  
Then in the shortest second a freak malfunction of the device that had brought them together in the first place had taken her away forever to places where he could not follow.  
  
And now Jack didn't know what to do. It still seemed too unreal, too bizarre to even think about seriously. How could she be gone?? She was Sam Carter, for crying out loud! She got out of danger at least once a week, saving herself and others in the process, there was no way she couldn't have survived this as well. It had been a cruel twist of fate, that was all. She was going to walk in that door any moment now, come out back with him and share a beer after a hard day at the office and everything was going to be fine.  
  
"She could survive anything.." he murmured to himself, still staring at the photo; now holding it like it was a delicate flower that needed protecting.  
  
He heard the sound of footprints behind him and every muscle in his body froze. For a short, bizarre second, he almost cheered out loud at the fact that he had been right and here she was, coming back to him like he had known she would, but then the light dimmed in his eyes as reality caught up with him, and he wondered who it was that was walking through his house uninvited.  
  
His question was answered when he recognised the unmistakable sound of Daniel bumping into his coffee table and releasing a muffled curse as he stepped aside, straightening what he had bashed into and stepping out of the sliding door onto the back porch, coming to a stop behind where Jack sat.  
  
Jack didn't greet him; in fact, he didn't even act like he had noticed he was standing there at all, hoping maybe if he did this then Daniel would just leave.  
  
No such luck. Jack heard Danny give a slight sigh before sitting down next to him on the porch, pulling his legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees. Spying this out of the corner of his eyes, Jack felt himself bristle unconsciously. It had always annoyed him when Daniel did this, and for the life of him he couldn't think of a reason why. Maybe it was the fact that it made him seem so child like, so innocent, even with every thing that he had seen over the years, that it seemed almost fake to the hard, realistic Colonel.  
  
Or maybe it was the fact that it seemed to drive the ladies wild. Sam had even said so, years ago when they were in the stage of their relationship when they still teased each other.before it had gotten to dangerous. The females on base seemed to think that it gave Daniel a cute, sensitive side that couldn't be resisted, whatever the hell that meant.  
  
But now, Jack just gave his head a little shake and told himself to stop being so petty. It wouldn't do to hurt Daniel when he had seemingly made an effort to seek him out.  
  
"How you doing, Jack?" the younger man asked softly, all the while staring out into the garden, watching the afternoon insects go about their business.  
  
"How does it look like I'm doing, Danny?" was Jack sarcastic reply and Danny snorted, knowing instantly that this conversation was doomed to go down hill from the start.  
  
"Yeah, thought as much." Looking around, Daniel spied the bottle of Whiskey and frowned, wondering how much of it Jack had drunk. He was just about to open his mouth and ask when he caught sight of the photo frame on Jack's knees. Noticing the contents, Daniel couldn't hold back the gasp of surprise that came out of his mouth when he saw himself and the others. Not caring what Jack would say about it, he reached out and gently picked up the frame from his friend's knees and brought it back, studying the treasured photo so closely that it almost touched his nose.  
  
"Oh, god." he whispered, his eyes tracing Sam's smiling face, his own joyful expression and the look of complete adoration on Cassandra's as she gazed up dreamily at her beloved Sam while the sun played on her glowing face.  
  
"I didn't know you had this framed, Jack," he whispered softly, still staring at the blonde woman leaning against his shoulder in the photo. Now that he remembered more clearly, Teal'c had taken it out here in this very garden a few summers ago when they had all gathered at Jack's for one of his famous barbeques. One of the reasons it had been such a lovely photo was because it had been the Jaffa's first successful photographic attempt and he had been so proud of it he had gotten about four or five copies of the whole film.  
  
Everyone had one, and Daniel knew for a fact that Cassandra had the very same photo framed on her bedside table, as well as one down stairs on the mantle piece of her and Janet's home. But he hadn't known Jack had the same photo framed, but now, thinking back over the past few months, it didn't seem so unlikely.  
  
With the thought of Cassie, Daniel winced. The poor girl was going to be devastated with the news and Daniel didn't envy Janet who would have to tell her when she got home tonight.  
  
"Yeah, well, I thought Teal'c had done a good job, so why not?" This typical Jack O'Neill answer didn't fool Danny for a second, and he shot him a disbelieving glance.  
  
"It's nice." Daniel said to nobody in particular, but Jack didn't answer.  
  
Finally having enough of having a conversation with a brick wall, Daniel reached around Jack and made a grab for the bottle of Whiskey. Knowing that Jack was watching him out of the corner of his eye, Danny braced himself and took a large gulp.  
  
He coughed as the stuff burned its way through his body, and felt Jack thump him on his back, non-to gently.  
  
"That's what you get for drinking this kind of stuff, Danny Boy, its not good for you on an empty stomach." Glaring at the older man who had finally decided to be verbal enough to get out a whole sentence, Daniel put the bottle down and swore to never touch the stuff again.  
  
"The General was asking for you, Jack," he said in a low voice, knowing this was a touchy subject. "He wants you to come back to base."  
  
"Yeah, well, you can tell Hammond that I'll come back when I want to, and not a moment before." Jack's gruff response didn't surprise Daniel, but he shook his head, knowing that he had to keep trying. Putting the frame down on the ground gently, he turned to face Jack.  
  
"You're needed there, can't you see that?" Daniel pleaded softly but Jack just gave a short, humourless bark of laughter.  
  
"To do what, exactly? SG-1 sure as hell won't be going on any missions anytime soon."  
  
"We need you, Jack." Daniel stressed honestly, knowing that if anything was going to reach the man, this was it. Sure enough, Jack looked down at the grass beneath his feet and closed his eyes.  
  
"You don't need me, Daniel. Neither does Jonas or Teal'c. You'll be fine together."  
  
"That's not true and you damn well know it." Daniel spat out, finally getting fed up. "So what are you going to do? Never come back to base? You think Sam would have wanted you to stay here and wallow in your own self pity when there are other people grieving just the same as you who need your help?" Daniel noticed Jack flinch when he said this but made himself keep going.  
  
"And what about her father, huh?" he said bluntly. "For god's sake, Jack, Jacob's been sent for and how do you think he's going to handle this? Hes going to need you there."  
  
"Why?" Jack finally asked, his voice deadly calm. "To add further salt to the wounds by telling him I was sleeping with his daughter?"  
  
Daniel closed his eyes. "Of course not, don't be so damn stupid." Taking a deep breath, Danny forced himself to calm down. "Your were not only her CO, but her friend as well, as far as Jacob's concerned. How is it going to look if your not there when he is told his daughter has disappeared and is probably dead?"  
  
There was nothing Jack could say to that and Daniel knew it. His expression grew soft when he reached over and rested a hand on his friend's shaking shoulder. "Please come back, Jack. Sam would want you to."  
  
And with that, he stood up and silently left Jack to his own thoughts, silently closing the sliding door behind him as he went. But as he was about to turn to walk through the house towards the front door, Danny looked down at Jack through the glass and saw him slowly reach out and once again pick up the silver frame and put it back in his lap. Even from behind him, Daniel could see that his shoulders were jerking with the unbearable pain that was shooting through his body as he wept for the loss of his dear friend and lover, and unbeknown to Daniel, his unborn baby as well.  
  
With one last glance at the bent, defeated head of his friend and teammate, Daniel turned and walked back through the house like a ghost, never forgetting that behind him a man was being torn apart.  
  
And knowing that deep in the centre of the silver frame, not touched by frost or time, Sam Carter kept smiling.  
  
**** 


	6. Farewell to Travellers

Hey all! Here is part 6 for you, read and enjoy. And thanx to all the people who have sent me reviews!  
  
****  
  
PART 6:  
  
".and then she gave the cup to Aragorn, and he drank, and he said: 'Farewell, Lady of Rohan! I drink to the fortunes of your House, and of you, and all your people. Say to your brother: beyond the shadow we may meet again!"  
  
Aragorn to Éowyn, The White Lady of Rohan. "The Return of the King."  
  
****  
  
Her hands swinging slightly at her sides, Sam Carter walked idly down the pale, silver hallway towards Gandalf's chamber, strangely at peace with herself and her situation for the first time in a long while. Spring had come to Lothlórien and Sam's heart had soared higher than the flowers and seeds that had made their home in the Lórien treetops. The last few weeks had been ones of quiet and calmness on Sam's behalf as she finally started to settle down into Lothlórien, with the help of Gandalf, Galadriel and Aragorn, whose friendship with the misplaced mortal had surprised all.  
  
Her baby was growing at an alarming rate, and not for the first time Sam blessed the loose elvish garments as her tummy seemingly expanded more every day. But it wasn't lost on her that if she was back on Earth, very soon Janet would be cutting her work load by half and making her sit down every couple of seconds as Jack force-fed her her lunch.  
  
The Ironic fact was that she had very little to do here that there was no chance what so ever that she would get snowed under in work and forget to eat. She now spent the majority of her days out in the gardens, sometimes with company and sometimes without, crafting elvish jewellery and writing letters to her friends that she knew would probably never be received.  
  
That is where she had just come from and had some of these very letters stuffed in the inside pockets of the light mesh cloak she wore over her pale yellow gown as she strolled around the corner towards Gandalf's rooms.  
  
She came to an abrupt stop in the doorway when she caught sight of what was happening in the chamber before her. Gandalf was standing beside his huge, wooden desk; carefully packing folded pieces of musty parchment into a leather satchel.  
  
Her hadn't seen her, and Sam used this opportunity to look wildly around the rest of the room, faint panic setting in when she noticed how empty it looked. The large bed was neatly made with a single change of clothes folded smartly on the cover. There were no loose pieces of paper lying around and no quills lounging over furniture, nothing to point out that Gandalf had been living here for the past three months.  
  
She must have made some noise as Gandalf suddenly looked up and saw her, frowning when he saw the expression on her face. They stared at each other; the woman and the wizard, both waiting for the other to start talking.  
  
"You're leaving." Sam whispered frankly, the accusation clear to read in her tone.  
  
Gandalf gave a sigh and slowly put the roll of parchment down on the desk, along with the satchel. He came to stand in front of Sam, taking her hands in his and gave her a warm, comforting smile. "You knew this moment would come, Samantha, my dear. You must not be too upset or surprised."  
  
Gently taking her hands from the Wizard, she wrapped her arms protectively around her belly and idly walked over to the desk, looking down at the parchment on its surface. From what she could make out, they were maps. Very primitive by her standards, but maps all the same. There were outlined mountains and valleys, rivers and cliffs and she read aloud some of the words she saw on there,  
  
"Argonath.Anduin.Bree.. Osgiliath.. Moria."  
  
They were all beautiful names for what she was sure were beautiful places. But she would never see them, not while she was pregnant and this was only enforced now that Gandalf was leaving her. The first person she had met here in Middle-Earth was departing and she cursed herself for being so weak.  
  
What had happened to her? Where had the strong, military Major gone? She was used to people leaving her, it had been happening her whole life, what made this so different? He was only one man; an old and odd one at that, why should she care so much that he was going?  
  
But even that as she thought that, she knew the answer. It wasn't that he was leaving so much as that he was leaving her to go on to better and brighter things, so to speak. Who knew what wonders he would see on his journey and what people he would meet, all the while she would be stuck back here, getting fatter and more lonely by the day, with only elves to keep her company.  
  
As all of this occurred to her at the same instant, Sam found herself rushing over to Gandalf and grasping his hands tightly in her own. Looking up into his slightly surprised and concerned eyes, she whispered fervently, "Take me with you!" but then her eyes grew cold and she saw the pitying expression on his face.  
  
"Samantha, you know you can not travel, especially not at this late date. The risk is just too high and I will not be the one to put you and your child in danger."  
  
Her shoulders slumping, she left her friend and went to stand by the doorway leading onto the private balcony, her back to the Wizard. She had known what his answer would be, how could she not? He cared too much for her to put her in any danger just to satisfy her whims. And even though she wanted to hate him with all her heart, she found she could not, and understood his motives.  
  
But Sam realised even though she would not be accompanying him, she was still curious as to what his journey entailed. "Where will you be going?" she asked, her voice soft and calm once again. Without turning, she felt her dear friend come up behind her and stay there, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.  
  
"We do not know at this time, not yet. Most probably to the Shire, for the danger to the Hobbits grows with every passing hour and I will not see those kind people destroyed for something they have no knowledge about."  
  
Something in the sentence made her catch her breath and she turned around to face the old man. "We?" she asked, daring to breathe. But then the light dimmed in her eyes as the Wizard nodded gravely.  
  
"Yes, Samantha, Aragorn will accompany me on my journey through the wilderness for there is no other choice. He has strayed in Lothlórien too long already, and his people grow restless. There are things to be done, and he is needed elsewhere."  
  
"You are both leaving." she whispered unconsciously, lowering her eyes to the ground. But she felt a finger under her chin and lift her eyes to his face, wincing when she saw the sympathetic smile she found there.  
  
"We will return, of that have no doubt. Gandalf the Grey keeps his promises and by the blessed rings of this world, I swear I will return to you."  
  
Sam nodded, feeling that the world was slipping through her fingers and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "I know, Gandalf, I know."  
  
She looked up into his eyes, and whispered the words she had been trying to say to him for the past few weeks, ever since she had learned that one day he would be leaving the Lórien walls. "Will you be there for the birth?"  
  
He looked greatly surprised; as if that was the last thing he had expected her to say. But as she watched his mull this over, she saw his expression change. He looked simply touched by her offer. "You honour me, my dear, and there is nothing I would love greater than to be present at the birth of your child."  
  
Sam let out a huge breath of air, as if she had expected him to say no. He saw this and chuckled, the familiar sparkle returning to his eyes. "For all the intelligence you seem to possess, my dear Samantha, there are times when you do not use them as well as you should."  
  
She looked at him, startled by his words for they were the closest thing he had said to her regarding her smarts, but for some strange reason, it made her think of Jack so forcefully that it brought tears to her eyes.  
  
But he must not have noticed, for the Wizard just took her arm and started to lead her towards the door. "Let there by no more talk of departures and farewells for now, young one. For I assure you, Aragorn and I will be back before you have even realised we were gone."  
  
Even though Sam knew this would not be possible, she held her tongue, not wanted to concern the old man. It would be like losing Jack, Daniel and the others all over again and she knew she would miss them every day they were away from her, her heart only finding peace when she could see them again with her own eyes, safe and well within the healing halls of Lothlórien.  
  
****  
  
The departure of Aragorn and Gandalf came sooner than Sam could have dared, for it was the very next day. The weather had blessed the travelling pair for the day and the afternoon sun was shining brightly from between the treetops that blanketed them above.  
  
But even now, as she stood under the golden arches of the city walls, surrounded by the elves that had come to see off the two travellers, Sam couldn't believe she wasn't going with them. Couldn't believe that she hadn't fought harder in letting her go.  
  
She knew this was the Human side of her fighting, battling with her subconscious and her morals, it knowing that she was made of sterner stuff and should be putting up a better fight, but deep inside her she knew that what Gandalf had said was true, that she was safer here in Lothlórien.  
  
He had also promised that when she had given birth he would take her where ever she wanted to go, within reason of course, but it was that thought alone that made Sam keep her mouth closed and not cause the scene that she wanted to as she watched the two men double check the stirrups and girths of their horses as they readied to leave.  
  
Sam watched Aragorn leave his horse and walk over to where Galadriel was standing in front of a group of elves, with Celeborn at her side. When he came to stand before them, the Queen reached up and rested the back of her hand on Aragorn's cheek, smiling up at him fondly. They spoke together quietly for a moment, with Celeborn watching them warmly, before the young man gave a final nod and turned around. With one last look at the two elves that obviously meant a great deal to him, he made his way back to Gandalf and their two horses.  
  
Mentally pushing herself forward, Sam left the comfort of the other elves and slowly walked across the grass towards them, holding the hem of her gown up with one hand so that it didn't brush across the ground. Both men looked up when she approached and gave her welcoming smiles, but they didn't still in their tasks, still strapping packs to the backs of the horses who, strangely enough to Sam, were standing quietly and calmly beside their masters, heads down munching on the grass idly.  
  
When she reached them, she had to look up to meet their smiling faces. She stood there for a moment, hands clasped loosely in front of her, wondering what she could say to them that would be meaningful enough to stay with them for the duration of their journey. But as Aragorn suddenly stopped what he was doing with a final, affectionate pat of the horse's rump and turned to her, she realised she didn't have to say anything at all.  
  
Instead, she just tilted her head to the side teasingly and said with a glint in her eyes, "Come back safely, and do it soon."  
  
Knowing how badly she wanted to come with them, Aragorn gave an ironic snort and put both his hands on his hips. "We shall try, Samantha." Then he cast his eyes downwards towards her expanding stomach and gently laid a hand on the bump. "We have a few months yet."  
  
She gave a laugh in reply just as Gandalf appeared from around the back of one of the horses and joined them. Putting a hand on Aragorn's shoulder, he said lightly, "Come, my friend. Middle-Earth awaits us." Aragorn nodded his head, his eyes suddenly sad at the thought of leaving, but he turned back to the horses once again, leaving Sam facing the Wizard alone.  
  
They looked at each other, both with their hands in front of them. Then suddenly Gandalf eloped the woman in a warm hug and Sam gave a heartfelt sigh as she wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. The moment was getting nearer and Sam didn't know if she could bare it. She had already lost so many people in her life; she couldn't stand it if her two new friends swiftly left her life as quickly as they had come.  
  
The safe, comforting life that she had been getting used to over the past few months was abruptly coming to an end and Sam didn't like it one bit.  
  
"Please be careful, Gandalf. Please," she whispered in his ear fervently. It was strangely important to her that he understood just how much he meant to her, even though they had only known each other for such a short time. For the past few months Gandalf had almost been her entire world here in the trees, he had been such a comforting figure as she ranted and raved at the injustice of her life now that she was away from her friends and family and stuck in a strange world all by herself. She didn't know how to thank him for everything that he had done for her, starting with how he had saved her life.  
  
Pulling back, she stared up into his sparkling silver eyes that were hidden by those busy eyebrows that she had come to love so much. She drank in his image as much as she could, knowing that if the Middle-Earth outside Lothlórien was getting as dangerous as they said it was, there was a very good chance that she would never see them again, Wizard or no Wizard.  
  
She started at the pointy, floppy hat and worked her way downwards past his worn, grey cloak to his feet, knowing that she would never forget him and what he had done for her if he never returned.  
  
"Your thoughts are dark, my dear, and I don't like it one bit." Gandalf's tone was low, hiding it from Aragorn a few feet away, but gently serious. Sniffling suddenly, Sam dipped her head and wiped her nose, not wanting them to know she was crying.  
  
But Gandalf gave a chuckle and gave her another short hug before he put an arm around her shoulders and led her around to stand in front of the horses. Sneaking a look out of the corner of her eye, Sam found herself inches away from the brown bay's large nose. Reaching up, she patted the horse's face idly and was rewarded when the other animal walked away from Aragorn and started rubbing its nose down her back, shoving her forward with every rub.  
  
She couldn't help but laugh as she caught sight of Aragorn's exasperated expression when he came to see where his horse had got to and found both animals being petted by Sam. But at her smiling face, the two men shared a look and visibly relaxed. Sam realised instantly that they had both been bothered at leaving Sam behind in Lothlórien by herself if she wasn't happy with the idea. She was touched.  
  
"Go on, then," she said confidently, still rubbing the horse's nose, who now looked like he was in heaven. "You better get going if you want to get to wherever you're heading before dark."  
  
Gandalf nodded his head when he noticed Galadriel, Celeborn and the elf Haldir come up beside them. Sam greeted them all, even Haldir who she hadn't gotten on with too well when first arriving in Lothlórien. She was presently surprised when the tall, blonde haired elf came to stand beside her, not saying a word. She had just opened her mouth to ask what he was doing when she caught the look he send Aragorn and closed it with a snap, staring at her friend in disbelief. She knew what that look was, she had seen it used all the time in the military, and was stunned that they were using it over her.  
  
If she wasn't mistaken, Haldir was silently assuring Aragorn that he would look after her while he was gone, that he was taking over her protection now that the man couldn't do it himself.  
  
Shaking her head at the arrogance of not only Elves, but Aragorn as well, Sam made her point known when she abruptly moved away from Haldir and went to stand beside Galadriel, folding her arms across her chest and sending both men pointed looks as if to say where they could stick their 'protection'. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.  
  
Fortunately, both men were wise enough to drop the matter.  
  
Then, seemingly the next thing Sam knew both Aragorn and Gandalf were on top of their horses; reins in hand and their green, elvish cloaks fastened at their necks with silver leaf shaped gems that Sam had made herself over the past few weeks, looking down at the people standing on the ground, around their horses, saying goodbye.  
  
When it was Sam's turn, she went to stand by Aragorn's horse, craning her head upwards to see his face. He looked so tall sitting up there, the afternoon sun basking around his head like a halo, that she was struck at the resemblance he made to some Earthly kings of old. But she kept her opinions to herself as he bent down and cupped her cheek gently.  
  
"Farewell, Samantha," he said in his low, music lit voice, his dark grey eyes kind. Then he seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if he was wondering if he should speak at all, but then seemingly made up his mind and said in a quiet voice for her ears only, "Do not be surprised if you get visitors while we are gone."  
  
Sam's eyes opened wide in surprise at his words but she stayed silent as he continued, "Your arrival has caused great unrest in the elvish realms, my friend. Not only for your acceptance in Lórien, but for your friendship with the Grey One and myself. They will come to see you soon, of this have no doubt."  
  
Sam mulled this over in her mind, wondering what it could all mean for not only herself, but for Galadriel, Celeborn and all the others. But Aragorn must have seen her uncertainty for he gave her one last comforting smile and withdrew his hand, sitting up straight on the horse, but his eyes still trained on her face.  
  
"Do you fear them, Samantha. You must not fear them, for that is what they want from you. Just be polite and remember you place. Never forget your people and where you come from, for with that, you will rise above the rest. You have the blessing of Galadriel, and there are few others of our kind who can boast that."  
  
Sam nodded her head slowly, taking in his words carefully. But then Galadriel's hand was on her shoulder and Haldir was again at her side and she was being forced to step back from the horses as Aragorn and Gandalf started to move away from the ever-growing crowd of silver and grey elves. Sam watched, tears pooling down her cheeks, as her two friends headed towards the outskirts of the trees, the leaves on the ground dancing up around the horse's legs as they moved.  
  
And then, as they got to the edge of the Lórien forest they suddenly stopped and turned and Sam's breath caught in her throat as all the Elves around her lifted up their arms, palms up facing the travellers, in an age- old gesture of farewell. And Sam found herself following them, raising her own hands in respect and honour to the two men who spent so much of their lives on a quest that many saw as a hopeless dream.  
  
She was honouring them now, just as she was honouring her friends back home who also were part of something that took them away from their families so often, sometimes for good, but who stayed on their quest for it was the right thing to do and they did it for their world and for the fate of the galaxy.  
  
And even though she was no longer apart of that dream, she knew she would always consider herself so, even as she now saw herself following a different path, away from her people and away from her friends, but no less great.  
  
But now, as she watched the two men, they too, lifted up their hands back at the elves and at her, and Sam knew that this was an old tradition that would be past down in Lothlórien for as long as the elves walked these glittering silver studded trees. They all stood there for a while, hands and palms up, saluting their friends and their kin, until Aragorn and the Wizard slowly lowered their own hands and turned back to the road.  
  
And as they flittered out of sight finally, Sam heard Galadriel whisper beside her,  
  
"Go with the blessing of Nenya, my dear ones, with Vilya and Narya the Great too. for the hearts of all elves go with you."  
  
And turning towards the Elvish Queen, Sam saw that her great blue eyes were locked on the distance where the two men had left, and towards the setting sun. And that was how the two woman stayed, long after the others had gone back inside, and they stayed together, side by side, basking in the fading sunlight as they prayed for the safely of their friends who had left them for destinations unknown, but for a quest that threaten to take their lives.  
  
****  
  
A few weeks later, Sam was sitting in her chamber, writing another letter to Jack. This one mostly contained updates and titbits about the baby's growth since Gandalf and Aragorn had left. She had found as the weeks and months slipped by and she got bigger and bigger that the letters to her friends back home ceased to be letters as such, and more like diary entries as she undated them all on the news and important things that were happing in her life now that they were not here to see it.  
  
The letters to Daniel and Jonas were mostly filled with the archaeological and architectural aspects of buildings she had seen in Lórien. Even though she wasn't an architectural expert by far, she had been around the two men long enough to know they would be astounded if they ever saw the place where she was living now. Of all the places they had visited through the galaxy, Middle-Earth was like nothing they had ever seen, and Sam would bet her life that they would never find another planet like it ever again.  
  
Her letters to Teal'c and her father consisted of the living aspects of the elves and what made them so startlingly different to not only humans in general, but most other races they had encountered. In fact, Sam had been amazed at the similarities the Lothlórien elves had to the Nox. Both races were pacifistic by nature, and without a doubt they were some of the grandest and noblest species Sam had ever met.  
  
But it was the letters she had written to Jack that had become her secret treasures and she cherished them above all of the other worldly possessions she had gathered over the past few months. They were strictly private and she made sure she kept them hidden in the locked draw of her desk at all times, and wore the key on a silver chain around her neck. Only in these did she pour out all her frustrations and sorrow, knowing that if he ever did get to read them, that he would understand her pain at being away from him for such a long time.  
  
And true to her word, she wrote daily updates of the baby's condition and when and where the baby had kicked inside her. She knew that these would be Jack's only link to her pregnancy if they ever saw each other again, and she wasn't going to be the person who denied him the right to see his baby grow. There were no cameras here in Middle-Earth of course, so these were the next best things she could give him.  
  
She was just re-reading through her latest sentence when there was a knock at her door and she looked up to find none other than Haldir standing in the open doorway, his hand still raised on the marble as he looked down at her in question, silently asking if he was interrupting her in anyway.  
  
Pushing down her urge to groan in irritation, she set down her quill and waved him into the room, wondering what on Earth he wanted. She had understood Haldir's affection and concern for her at first, even if she had found it a little surprising considering his treatment of her when she first arrived, but now, it was getting a little startling. True to his word to Aragorn, the tall, imposing elf had been nothing but courteous and chivalrous to Sam over the past few weeks, always appearing out of nowhere if it looked like she needed help.  
  
Helping her down stairs, fetching her snacks whenever her increasing appetite called for them, it seemed that there was nothing that he wouldn't do for her, and she wondered dryly what threats Aragorn had given the warrior before he had left concerning what he would do to the elf if he returned and found Samantha denied of the smallest little thing she could want.  
  
Oh, he had other good points; of that there were no doubt. As well as seemingly knowing every inch of Caras Galadhon like the back of his hand, he had turned out to be an excellent listener in every way imaginable. Sam couldn't count the number of times she had been walking silently through the gardens, surrounded in trees from every angle, pondering over her fate in quite morbid manners when he would suddenly appear between the silver trees and ask if she would like some company.  
  
At these times she would bless him completely, for company was exactly what she wanted.and needed, and he seemed to realise this. He had long ago apologised for his treatment of her when they had first met, and his suspicion for what she was doing in Lórien in the first place, and the two of them had formed an unlikely friendship the more they spent in each other's company.  
  
So this is why Sam found herself slightly confused with his presence in her chamber, especially as she had insisted to him earlier that she have the morning to herself.  
  
"What is it, Haldir?" she asked as he neared her desk and saw the uneasy expression on his beautiful face.  
  
As he came to a stop in front of her desk, the elf looked down at her gravely, as if he had something heavy weighting on his mind. "The Lady Galadriel has requested your presence in her chambers, Samantha." Haldir said solemnly. "She apologises for interrupting your morning, but says the matter can not wait, and I am inclined to agree with her."  
  
Eyebrows raised, Sam quickly rose from her chair and moved around the desk. "What's happened?" she asked, wondering what could unsettle the normally composed elf warrior. But Haldir just frowned, seemingly as baffled as she was at the situation. He didn't say anything else to ease her mind until they had left her rooms and he was guiding her down the corridor with a gentle hand on the small of her back.  
  
"There are some people here to see you," he told her in a low voice as they made their way through the twisting staircase and hallways of Caras Galadhon. She wondered at his tone for a second before realising he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was saying and they were passing elves in all directions as they walked, all of them nodding their wise, golden heads in greeting at the tall elf and the mortal woman who had joined their house for the time being.  
  
It was only impulse that made her try and twist around to see his face as his words registered with shock to her system. But he must have foreseen her intent for she felt his strong hand come to clamp down on her hip to still her movements instantly and she froze in shock at the intimate touch.  
  
Less than a second later, she felt his warm breath on her ear. "I am sorry, my friend," he whispered. "But that was necessary. We must not draw attention to ourselves, for your visitor's arrival has yet to be announced and Galadriel wishes it to stay that way for the time being."  
  
She nodded her head shortly, understanding his words, and let him lead her the rest of the way in silence. She recognised the path they were taking and knew they were heading deep within the heart of the city as they neared Galadriel's chambers. Finally she saw the closed, twin marble doors that led into the private rooms of the Queen and let out a breath of relief. She had a faint idea who the person or persons here would be, but she was impatient to meet them face-to-face.  
  
But as the doors were pushed open and the occupants of the chamber stopped their conversation and turned to greet them, Sam found herself sucking in a gasp of shock as she stared at the people before her.  
  
****  
  
Standing in front of Galadriel's floor length window next to the Queen herself was a man who Sam knew she would never forget her first meeting with for as long as she lived. Standing next to the golden brightness of the elvish Queen and her Lord, Celeborn, this man was as dark featured as they night sky and Sam was stunned at the contrast between them. That he was an elf was obvious, from his slanted ears to his regal face and elvish robes that positively dripped the elegance of that striking race, Sam had noted that aspect instantly.  
  
But that was where the similarities abruptly ended. His hair was as dark as his eyes and fell down his back in a straight mane with well-crafted pattens and designs at the front by his face. He was standing there, gazing back at her tranquilly with his hands clasped lightly in front of him with all the grace of a king.  
  
There was no mistaking who this man was, and Sam couldn't believe that standing before her was none other that Master Elrond of Rivendell himself, mighty among men and elves. She knew who he was, she had heard all about him from Aragorn and there was no way she could think he was anybody else but the half-Elven.  
  
This was Galadriel's son-in-law, and Aragorn's adopted father since he was barely a child, and for all the life of her, Sam didn't have a clue what to say. But her problem was pushed aside instantly when she caught sight of the other new figure with them, standing side on outside on the balcony, just behind her father, looking out onto the ever lasting forests of Lothlórien.  
  
As her eyes slid over to rest on the new figure, Sam thought she had slipped into some impossible dream, for standing there, her pale hands loosely grasping the marble railing of her grandmother's balcony, was one of the most enchanting people Sam had ever seen. She wasn't merely beautiful, it was as if there was more to her than Sam could ever imagine. With her face side on to hers, Sam could see her fine, ageless features and her long, midnight tresses that were so much like her father's, and Sam would have sworn that she was the night itself.  
  
And as she seemed to realise someone was staring at her, the lovely woman slowly lifted her head and turned to regard Sam in turn, and as she looked deep into those dusky eyes, Sam knew instantly why Aragorn had fallen in love with this elf, for there was no way you couldn't.  
  
She was Arwen Undómiel, the Evenstar of her people, and the darkness of the elves as Galadriel was the morning.  
  
But her eyes were drawn away from Arwen's and back to Elrond's when the dark elf took a step forward and held out his hand to her. As if she was suddenly snapped out of a trance, Sam stumbled forward and gave him her hand without thinking, jerking slightly when she felt him drop a chaste, feathery kiss on the top of her hand.  
  
Slowly straightening, Elrond's eyes, that had been locked on Sam's, briefly flicked over her shoulder to the figure behind her, Haldir, no doubt, before sliding back to meet hers.  
  
"Greetings, young one." Elrond said to her evenly. Then, as if by looking into her eyes he saw something he liked, the elf nodded his head to himself slightly. "You know who I am?"  
  
Sam opened her mouth to answer, but found she could not speak. Risking a glance over Elrond's shoulder, she saw Arwen silently walk back into the room and go to stand next to her grandfather. Inclining her head to the side, she gave Sam a long, searching look before looking down at the ground, not wanting to know what she would find there. But Sam found this gave her new resolve and she yanked her gaze back to the dark, elvish Lord who was still waiting for her answer, one eyebrow slanted.  
  
Sam forced herself to nod her head. "Yes, my lord. I know who you are." She was faintly proud of herself for keeping her voice even and not wavering. It just wouldn't do for her voice to break in front of this powerful creature. Briefly, her last memory of Aragorn flashed through her mind and she made a silent promise to herself and to her friend that she wouldn't embarrassed either of them in this meeting with the elf who was the only father Aragorn had ever known.  
  
"Good." Elrond said pointedly and it was Sam's turn to raise her eyebrows at his tone. But he ignored the gesture and clasped his hands behind his back, regarding her intently from top to bottom as she stood there, bristling at the nerve of the man.  
  
"As I am sure you are well aware, young one, I have travelled a great distance to meet with you here, so I ask that you do not waste either of our time." He shot her a quick glance with his dark eyes and Sam felt her hackles rising under his gaze. This meeting was not going well.  
  
To Sam's complete surprise, Arwen must have noticed this for she silently rested a calming hand on her father's shoulder, which caused him to take a deep breath and relax slightly. When she next looked at him, she was pleased to see that he looked a lot friendlier, and she was internally grateful to Arwen for intervening on her behalf.  
  
When Arwen took her hand away and went to stand with the others, Sam glanced at Elrond and almost gave a sigh when she saw the questioning look on his dark featured face. For a second, she cursed herself for not realising what this man wanted with her before now. She should have seen it. He was a Master among not only Elves, but Men as well, and she knew that this meeting would not end any time soon. He would want to know everything about her; where she had truly come from, and there was not doubt that what she would tell him would upset the elf something fierce.  
  
But looking at Arwen again, the beautiful elf that she didn't know at all, but seemed to know so much about from others, Sam knew she would have no choice but to tell this man everything and let him come to his own conclusions, for it was the almost pleading look on Arwen's face that swayed Sam.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Sam looked up and determinedly met Arwen's father's eyes.  
  
"What do you want, Master Elrond?" she asked in a deadly, low voice. "For me to bare my soul to you?" Surprising them all, Sam abruptly spun around, almost bowling into Haldir in the process and marched across the room to a set of chairs that were arranged in a group under a large window. Knowing they were all watching her, she sat down in one of the seats and turned her unwavering gaze back to the small group of stunned elves.  
  
"Well?" she asked firmly, knowing that this was it. If she was going to win the respect and friendship with the other elves in Middle-Earth, there was no better place to start than Elrond himself.  
  
"What are you waiting for? None of us have all day." Getting more comfortable, Sam laid her hands across her lap, clenching them together as she went.  
  
Slowly.oh, so slowly, Elrond came across the room and joined her in the group of chairs. Then Arwen followed him, taking a seat next to Sam herself. None of them said a word. Finally, when she couldn't take it any longer, Sam looked up and met the gaze of Galadriel, who was unhurriedly coming towards them with Celeborn at her side. And it was staring up into the gaze of this lovely golden elf that gave Sam the courage she knew she would need to see this meeting through, for Galadriel wore on her face a soft, winning smile that was for Sam herself. There was an odd twinkle in her eye and Sam realised that she was slightly looking forward to what laid ahead.  
  
But from that, Sam knew that what ever happened, she would have the Queen's support and that gave her great comfort, knowing that she would always have a friend here in Lothlórien.  
  
Pulling all her military background from its hiding place at the back of her mind, Sam sat up straighter and met Elrond's firm gaze head on, two strong personalities going head to head, one for the protection of his world, the other in protection of herself and her baby, for that was all she had left. And she would cling to that for all she was worth. 


	7. The Evenstar

Part 7:  
  
"I wonder," said Frodo. "It's my doom, I think, to go to that Shadow yonder, so that a way will be found. But will good or evil show it to me? What hope we had was in speed. Delay plays into the Enemy's hands - and here I am: delayed. Is it the will of the Dark Tower that steers us? All my choices have proved ill. I should have left the Company long before, and come down from the North, east of the River and of the Emyn Muil, and so over the hard of the Battle Plain to the passes of Mordor."  
  
Frodo Baggins, "The Taming of Sméagol." [The Two Towers]  
  
****  
  
A few hours after being introduced to Master Elrond of Rivendell and his daughter, a very troubled Sam Carter walked quietly down an untouched, mossy pathway, her hands reaching out to brush the vibrant pearly green branches that flanked her in the garden. At her side, the Lady Arwen was as silent as she was, but Sam guessed for a completely different reason. The meeting with her father had not gone well and at Arwen's offer, Sam had jumped at the chance to take a break from the elf's persistent questions for a stroll outside.  
  
From the sympathetic glance she had shot Sam's way, the blonde realised Arwen must have felt sorry for her, having knowing how stern her father could be. Not knowing how that really made her feel, Sam just gave a mental shake of her head and pushed the thought aside. She was grateful for what the beautiful, dark elf had done for her, and she wasn't about to spoil that by picking a fight on a matter of pride.  
  
But truthfully, Sam didn't blame Elrond for any of the questions he had asked her over the past few hours, or held any resentment towards the narrowed, suspicious glances he had pinned on her. She knew why he was doing it, and knew that if she were in the same position, she would act the same way. In fact, she had on many occasions. He was only doing it in order to protect not only his kind, but also the world that he knew to be his own. Elrond was mighty among his people, but as a powerful elf he had the responsibilities of many other races on his shoulders.  
  
To have a peculiar, pregnant woman with no kin and no ties to Middle-Earth appear out of nowhere and be thrust into the world of the elves, it could spell danger to all that they knew and considered the normal ways of the world. Sam wasn't foolish enough to believe that the story she had told Gandalf, Galadriel and the others would be accepted by the elvish population as calmly as her new friends had accepted it.  
  
That was, in fact, one of the main points that Elrond had bluntly informed Sam, and he had made sure that she had understood everything he was and wasn't saying in that statement. He had told her that he was in no way the only elvish Lord who was curious about her claims and were making the long journeys through Middle-Earth to behold her. Many others had already sent heralds to the Lady of Lothlórien announcing their intended arrival in her lands.  
  
For the time being, Elrond and Celeborn had decided to keep her identity hidden from the other powerful races, such as the Dwarves and the Men of Rohan and Gondor. Even though there was no doubt that Sam was of the race of Men, however distantly, they thought it best that they get it sorted out amongst the elves first before the others found out the situation surrounding her arrival in Lothlórien, if they ever did.  
  
Sam didn't know how she felt about all the attention. On one hand, it was good that her new friends stood by her and she knew without a doubt that they would protect her, if any of the new arrivals suddenly decided she was too much of a threat to keep around. Not, of course, that she expected them to, for elves were mostly pacifistic by nature. And if the rest of them were anything like Elrond, then she didn't think she had anything to fear, apart from being bored to tears by all the questions they demanded the answers for.  
  
But now, as she felt the telltale prickling sensation at the back of her neck, Sam turned her head to the side slightly and caught Arwen looking at her in the same way. Both woman blushed instantly at being caught and immediately looked away, but it seemed the damage had already been done, so to speak, for it wasn't long before Sam found herself letting out a faint chuckle of amusement at their actions.  
  
Looking at the dark, elvish princess again to gage her reaction, Sam wasn't surprised in the slightest to see her sensual, elegant lips curving up into a smile.  
  
She would have a wicked sense of humor, this one, Sam mused to herself. Knowing that she would have to be the one to break the ice, Sam reached across and lightly placed her hand on Arwen's pearly white arm. The elf jerked slightly at the contact and Sam winced, wondering if that was the wrong thing to do. The only elvish female she had had much contact with was Galadriel and she didn't seem to have a problem with contact. But dwelling on that thought for a moment, Sam realised just how different the two woman were, and put it down to that.  
  
"Sorry," Sam said lightly, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. But Arwen just shook her head firmly, causing her dark, braided hair to flit over her forehead.  
  
"No, Lady Samantha. 'Tis me, I know, and I apologize." The dusky eyed woman gave a great sigh of regret as they continued to walk through the garden, heading towards the direction of the river. Looking down at the ground as they walked, Arwen quietly admitted, "My father says I have lacked female companionship for too long as it is." At Sam's slightly confused look she gave a kind smile and tried to explain.  
  
"My mother died when I was quite young, by elvish standards, that is, and I have spent the majority of my time living here, with my grandparents." With that, Arwen looked up and spread her eyes about the splendor of Lothlórien. Instantly, Sam was struck by the similarities of the tender expression she saw there in Arwen's eyes to the one in Aragorn's just months before.  
  
It was then that Sam finally realised just how much this place meant to not only the people who lived here but also those who had only just set eyes on it. Both Arwen and Aragorn obviously considered Lothlórien their home just as much as she now did.  
  
Not looking at Sam, Arwen closed her eyes and smiled peacefully. "It has been too long since I was last in Lórien, and it is you that I must thank for bring me home." Sam smirked at the elf's words; amused that she would see it like that.  
  
"It is only now that I know how very much I have missed it." Opening her eyes slowly, she regarded Sam sincerely. "My father's house of Rivendell is a wonder, no doubt, and it has its own charms, but Lothlórien." slowly, the woman broke off with a sheepish smile.  
  
But Sam only laughed. "You sound exactly as Aragorn did, when talking of this place," she told Arwen truthfully, shaking her head. "If it was another place you were talking about, then I would probably have to disagree with you, my lady, for mark my words, I have seen some astounding places in my travels. But on this, I will agree with you wholeheartedly."  
  
Turning her head to flash Arwen a smile, Sam was instead startled to find the dark elf regarding her keenly. "You have spoken with Aragorn about this?" she asked, her voice curious, but not alarmed in any way. For this Sam gave a mental sigh, for she did not want to be the cause of any lovers quarrel between the two.  
  
Nodding hesitantly, Sam made sure her tone was firm, yet respectful as she answered the elvish princess. "Yes, my lady, Aragorn and I have had many a long talk in these gardens." Seeing that Arwen was about to speak, Sam rushed on ahead. "But only in the name of friendship, I assure you. Aragorn was a very good companion of mine during his time here, but nothing else."  
  
Taking a deep breath, she stole a look at Arwen's face and was relieved to find her smiling. "Do not fear, Lady Samantha, I do not question your virtue nor Aragorn's loyalty to me." She lay a reassuring hand on Sam's arm. "I am glad you have become friends, there is nothing I would have liked greater. And from what My Lord has said to me on the matter, and from seeing you now, it had done the both of you a world of good."  
  
Astonished, Sam stopped walking and turned to her new companion. "You have spoken to him?" her words came out urgent; hungry for information on the welfare of her two friends. Arwen nodded in silent approval as she noticed this, but Sam didn't comment.  
  
"Indeed I have. He came with the Wizard, Gandalf, to my father's home not two weeks past, bearing news of your arrival in my grandparent's house, and further information of the creature Gollum, but that is another matter entirely. I bring with me his kind regards for you and your babe, and a gift for you both with is presently being guarded by a trusted friend."  
  
Dazed, Sam stumbled as they continued walking once again, trying to digest this news. Finally, she asked in a concerned tone, "They were well?" and to this, Arwen nodded her dark head.  
  
"They were. Only tired and in need of a good, long bath." Smiling, Arwen told Sam as they started to climb a small hill that flanked the mighty river that flowed beside the Lórien woods, "They head towards the Shire, I believe, to the Hobbits." At that, the dark elf's eye's grew dark with anger so suddenly that Sam was startled and stared at her new friend, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong to bring that fury to her eyes.  
  
"There is a evil there that clutches the cheerful Hobbits in its grasp as we speak, even though they are blissfully unaware of it. Gandalf, at least, can come and go from the Shire as he pleases, for he has long been a friend of those happy people, but the others.that is Aragorn and the Dúnadan Rangers, they protect them from the Shadows, hidden by the trees and the darkness, guarding their happy little lives with their own, under no one's orders, just for the love they have for those small people."  
  
At this, Arwen shook her head at the irony of the situation. "How much as Gandalf told you about the matter of the Ring?" she asked abruptly, but merely curious it seemed.  
  
Racking her brain, Sam answered truthfully. "A bit, my lady." Then she shrugged her shoulders. "He and Aragorn did not see any point hiding it from me when I was around them so much anyway, so I know all about Gollum and the Ring." Then she frowned. "Gandalf told me about the Baggins; Bilbo and Frodo, although, there are some bits there that I admit I don't quite understand."  
  
"Also, I will be the first to say that most of this sounds very unrealistic, and fantastical, to a person of my background, even though there is no way it should considering what I used to face on a weekly basis." Sam gave a little, dry laugh that was void of all humor.  
  
"Indeed?" Arwen asked her then, obviously curious. But it was only when they reached the top of the small hill that Sam answered the elf princess, as she stared out onto to the mountains that could be made out in the distance. For all the world, at that moment Sam would have sworn she was back in Colorado, surrounded by the mountains of her home. She closed her eyes, letting herself be swept away by the impossible for the faintest hint of a second then squeezed her hands into tight fisted balls at her side before forcing herself to open her eyes once more.  
  
At that very moment, everything and everyone seemed so very far away.  
  
"I didn't tell your father about this, my lady, so I ask for your word that you will keep it to yourself." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Sam took a deep breath, wondering if she had over stepped the boundaries with her remark. But the Lady Arwen just tilted her head to the side inquisitively and gestured for her to continue.  
  
And so she did. For the next half an hour, Sam told the ageless elf about her travels through the stars and the gate. She let herself get caught up in her own tale, making herself revisit all that she had gone through over the part seven years with her friends and teammates as a way of comforting herself that no whatever happened, she would always remember the other life she had once lived. Knowing at the same time that she would never forget the people who had made it the adventure it had turned out to be.  
  
The lovely Arwen sat there beside her on the grass on the top of the hill, silent as the night, letting Sam speak as she liked, but obviously filing every single word away into her pretty, dark head as they flowed from Sam's mouth. And for a being that had seen the comings of Ages like the tide, the rise and fall of cities and their people through her long life, she seemed completed enthralled by what she was hearing.  
  
Her normal dusky, wise eyes grew wider as the time ticked by and she heard Sam talk of races of people more powerful than her own who seemingly lived in places not known to this side of creation. She mused over descriptions of the Stargate as Sam described them to her in detail at her request, wondering about the significance to the other powerful Rings of her world.  
  
She laughed with the pregnant woman at her side who eagerly told of her dear friends' back home, and she learnt all about Daniel, Jonas, Janet, Hammond, Cassandra and the others. But it was when Sam started to talk about Jack O'Neill that Arwen finally discovered something which had been plaguing her mind almost since the first moment she had gotten a good look at the blonde mortal.  
  
"He is the child's father, is he not?" she asked in a gentle tone, not wanting to upset the woman who was now looking out at the mountains again, her eyes wistful and full with a bare longing. Arwen wondered briefly what she saw out there in the wilderness. But at her softly spoken words, Sam jerked as if Arwen had just slapped her in the face and stared at the elf, blinking madly.  
  
"How on earth did you know that?" Sam sounded completely bewildered, as if she hadn't realised how obvious she had been when talking about the earthly male.  
  
At her reaction, Arwen couldn't help but give a tinkering laugh, clasping her pale hand to her breast. For the first time in longer than she cared to remember, but knowing it was since Aragorn had left Rivendell, she felt alive again. She felt vivid. Exhilarated. And she savored the feeling.  
  
"It was obvious, dear lady," the elf told the blonde as she regarded her with an easy smile. "You should have seen your face!"  
  
Somewhere deep inside her told Sam she should be feeling very embarrassed at this moment or sheepish at least, but strangely enough she found that she didn't. Instead, she arched an eyebrow and leaned forward ever so slightly, eagerly staring at the other woman.  
  
"Really?" she asked, feeling a flock of butterflies take flight in her stomach and begin to soar up her body. She always had such a reaction when thinking of Jack O'Neill, she admitted to herself mentally. But she knew she would rather die than tell him so, his ego had grown to about the size of a house in those last few months anyway.  
  
Arwen nodded her head in answer, then ducked it shyly, her eyes peaking out from between her braids at Sam. She looked like there was a question she wished to ask, but wondered if she should think better of it. Finally, she smiled boldly and leaned in towards Sam.  
  
"What's it like?" she asked hesitantly. For a second Sam thought she was talking about being in love, then realised how silly that sounded for the elf princess has been in love with Aragorn for years. It was only when Arwen dropped her smoky eyes to Sam's middle that the younger woman realised just what she was referring to.  
  
The whole area of marriage and children with the elves was one that Sam knew almost nothing about, but it was quite obvious that it held traditional values. From that, and Arwen's comment, Sam guessed that the elf wouldn't be having kids till she married. And whether they would be with Aragorn was yet to be seen.  
  
"Being pregnant?" she asked unnecessarily, leaning back on her elbows. "It's okay, I guess. Although, I'm sure it's going to get worse the further I get along."  
  
With that, Arwen gave a wistful sigh and looked down at the ground sadly. "I wouldn't know. Actually, I know almost nothing about childbearing, as silly as that may sound to you." Then she looked up at Sam suddenly, a brow raised. "I fact, I have never even seen a babe."  
  
Sam wondered if it was possible to look shocked and baffled at the same time. "You've never seen a baby?" she asked incredulously, finding that hard to believe. "Come on, everyone's seen a baby before. They're everywhere."  
  
But Arwen just shook her head. "But here they are not. Since I am the youngest of my kind there have been none to follow me. Even when Aragorn came to live in my father's house as a child, I had already left for Lothlórien by then."  
  
Sam sat there, not knowing what to say, but thinking it all over in her head. It was only then that she realised that she hadn't actually seen any children at all in Lothlórien since she got there. Could Arwen be right? she wondered to herself, bewildered. But if that were true, that would mean.  
  
"Correct me if I'm wrong," she asked slowly, "but wouldn't that be disastrous to your species?"  
  
Arwen smiled at her inquisitiveness. "Indeed it would be, Samantha," she answered, "If we were intending to stay the way we are." Bringing a curious look to her own face, she asked in turn, "Gandalf must have told you about the Grey Havens, did he not?"  
  
Confused, Sam just shook her head. Just when she thought she had the elves down pat, something like this came out of the woodwork and blew all her theories to hell.  
  
The elf looked slightly surprised at this. "I wonder why," she murmured to her self before giving her shoulders a graceful flick. Then her face turned troubled at the notion that she was going against the Wizard's wishes by telling this mortal things that he obviously didn't think she ought to know at this time.  
  
So it was the Lady Arwen who made the first move, causing Sam to lift her head upwards as the elf fluidly got her to feet, brushing off the grass from her green and ebony gown as she waited for her companion.  
  
As she got to her feet a second later, Sam knew what Arwen was going to tell her was being brushed aside and she wondered why. What she was about to say was obviously important, there was no doubt about that. But how important could it be that she was being left out of the loop?  
  
Shaking her head as questions started to swim through her brain, Sam turned back towards the palace as Arwen linked her arm through hers and started to lead them towards the trees. Neither of them spoke, but the silence wasn't awkward and for this Sam was thankful. She had had enough awkward moments to last her a lifetime and she didn't want to bring them with her here.  
  
When they got back to the House, Sam was startled when Arwen walked right past the door they had left from and lead her around the back of the apartments to another door, this one with a huge sheet of glass in the middle. She pushed it open briskly and walked through, smiling at Sam when the woman looked at her inquisitively.  
  
"Where are we?" Sam asked, her body tense and on guard. But Arwen just smiled brightly and looked around the airy, calming room fondly with her hands on her hips.  
  
"These are my chambers when I am in Lothlórien. I brought you here because there is someone I would like you to meet." For the first time she seemingly realised that Sam was still standing by the door with her hands crossed over her chest, looking slightly wary.  
  
"Please, have a seat." Arwen told the younger woman, trying to get her to relax. But Sam stayed where she was, not moving an inch. Arwen frowned at her odd behavior, gave her shoulder another flick of bafflement and took a seat. As the room grew silent, Sam used this time to scan the room quickly, wondering where this mysterious person was. She was so strung with tension by the time there was a faint knock on the wooden door that she felt her feet leave the ground as she jumped.  
  
Spinning around to face the door as it opened, she was so expending Elrond or one of the others to walk through that she gave a small cry of surprise when she saw not Elrond at all, but a tall, lithe figure of a woman silently step through the fresh hold.  
  
As Sam watched, the woman looked to Arwen instantly as if she was reassuring herself that she was actually there. She visibly relaxed her taut shoulders as she realized that the elf was quite safe and well. Then she turned her gaze to Sam's, and the two women stared at each other, both sizing each other up.  
  
The new elf was obviously not from Lothlórien, if her hair meant anything. By her long, raven locks Sam guessed she had come from Rivendell with the others. Like Arwen, she had tall, elegant bearing and the same deep blue piecing gaze as the elvish princess. But that was where the similarities ended.  
  
Even though Arwen was draped in a flowing, airy black and green gown, this woman was dressed as a warrior. There was no mistaking either her clothes or her stance. The pale olive leggings she wore hugged her every curve and as her eyes flicked lower Sam could see the long silver sword strapped to the woman's hip under the long black tunic she wore around her shoulders.  
  
Her dark featured face set into a hard, grim expression as she took in Sam growing body and her elvish robes. Crossing her arms over her chest, the woman just stood there, staring at her with an eyebrow raised, as if she was waiting for Sam to speak.  
  
The hell with her, Sam thought, and stubbornly kept her mouth shut as she rounded on Arwen. "Who is this?" she asked her new friend firmly, already feeling the dread well up in her body as she started to suspect just why this elf warrior was here.  
  
But Arwen ignored her tone and stood up gracefully. Walking over to the stoic woman who was still standing there with her hard expression, looking to much like Teal'c for Sam comfort, Arwen put her hand lightly on the other woman's pale arm and said the introductions.  
  
"Samantha, I would like you to meet my dear friend, Pènne of Rivendell. Pènne, this is your new charge, the Lady Samantha of Earth."  
  
Charge??  
  
What was this charge business? "Excuse me?" Sam asked politely, but with building anger boiling in her blood as she started to walk backwards towards the door. She knew exactly what she was going to do, and it didn't include standing around here being introduced to the woman who was going to become her bodyguard. No way!  
  
She saw that Arwen was frowning at her tone and at her feet as she slowly shuffled backwards. Taking a step towards her retreating figure, she lifted up her hand in her direction as she tried to explain.  
  
"Before we left Rivendell, it was decided that it would be best if you had someone stay close to you at all times." Then she gave a sympathetic smile. "You know as we as I, my friend, that if and when your location becomes known to the rest of the land that you could be put in considerable danger. These are dark times, Samantha, nobody knows how this could turn out."  
  
She quickly shot a glance at Pènne's silent figure and Sam followed her gaze. Though the woman had now dropped her hands to her sides in a casual manner, Sam's militarily background told her that she was ready and willing to pounce on her if she even set one foot outside the door. Her cool blue eyes were following Sam's every movement with cat-like grace.  
  
But Sam just shook her head. "I'm sorry, Arwen, but there is no way in hell I'm going to agree with this. My life before I came here was a lot more dangerous than this place seems to be and I sure as hell never had a bodyguard there, so I'm not going to start now."  
  
And with that, she stiffly turned around and headed towards the door, to angry even to give a farewell and not caring if the Amazon behind her tried to pin her to the wall. But Arwen's next words stilled her feet on the spot.  
  
"This was Gandalf's idea, Samantha. He was the one who brought it to my father." Arwen's tone was low and soft, as if she knew using that excuse was just about as low as she was willing to go.  
  
Still with her back to them, Sam's breathing started to quicken at the full implication of Arwen's words. She didn't want to believe her old friend would go behind her back like this, but she had to be sure. Turning her head slightly, she whispered loud enough for the princess to hear, "Aragorn?"  
  
Arwen's silence gave Sam the answer she needed and she squeezed her eyes closed tightly as her friends' betrayal washed over her like an angry wave.  
  
"How could they," she murmured to herself, her voice dripping fury.  
  
Nothing. They hadn't said one word about this to her before they left and the fact that they obviously didn't think she could protect herself and her baby was bad enough.  
  
"I said no, Arwen. And nothing you say about those two is going to make me change my mind, so stop wasting your breath."  
  
And with that she continued through the door, feeling the faint sense of satisfaction as the glass pane shattered to a thousand little pieces as she slammed it in her wake. 


	8. Voyager

Hola! Here is part eight; sorry it's taken a few months to get out (a few she says!). University has been a tad bit busy lately, lol. I shall warn you all in advance, this part is quite confusing, but I promise all will be answered in due time. Also, thank you so much for all of you who have been sending me reviews, they totally make my day :D  
  
*** *** "I heard a deal that I didn't rightly understand, about an enemy, and rings, and Mr Bilbo, sir, and dragons, and a fiery mountain and - and Elves, sir. I listened because I couldn't help myself, if you know what I mean. Lor bless me, sir, but I do love tales of that sort. And I believe them too, whatever Ted may say. Elves, sir! I would dearly love to see them. Couldn't you take me to see Elves, sir, when you go?" - Samwise Gamgee of the Shire. [The fellowship of the Ring]  
  
***  
  
High above the grassy plains of Caras Galadhon a lone rider sat upon her mount, a striking, single figure blanketed by the morning mist of the rolling mountains to her east. Far below her were the white cliffs of the distant forests that enclosed the elvish realm from the outsider's fearful, knowing gaze. But at these wonders Pènne's piecing, cold eyes were not trained, but at a group of boulders to her right, partly hidden by thick bush.  
  
Anyone who was not looking for these marvels would have walked right past the sacred spot, but to this woman and many of her kin; these natural wonders were an important, past down element of their heritage, one that would never be forgotten. And on this day, a day like none other seen in Lothlórien, the Boulders of Eleniando were to play a special part. Even to her, a foreigner in these parts, the legend of Eleniando stirred emotions in her that she felt for none other.  
  
With one last, grave glance, Pènne stared down at the elvish city below her, her thoughts filled with what was happening down there at this very moment, at the significant event that was taking place, and her role in it. For she knew, down there in that glorious, silver city one woman could be hovering on the brink of death, and that it was up to her to make sure that the marvel was played out at it should be.  
  
Shaking her head, the raven-haired elf gracefully jumped down from her horse and, leading the bay by his bridle, started to approach the sacred space at a respectful, measured pace. As she got closer, the unusual shape of the creation came into view and for the first time Pènne relaxed, even allowing a ghost of a smile to tug at her lips. There where five of them, as there had been at the beginning, and when the woman came to a stop in the centre of the unusual circle, she followed custom by falling to her knees, bowing her head respectfully as the heavy, revered air filled her lungs.  
  
Finally, she gave a soft sigh and got to her feet, turning around briskly as she busied herself with the task that had brought her to this place to begin with. From the saddle of her horse the cerulean-eyed elf gathered the necessary ingredients for her duty and with one swift smack on the horse's rump, sent the startled animal out of the sacred circle of stones. It came to a stop a small distance away, seemingly content to lower his head to the grass below him and munch.  
  
Her dark hair falling down her back in one long braid, Pènne silently stepped around the boulders, gathering the dried grass that she would need to complete the ritual she had been sent out to partake. When a huge pile had been gathered in the centre of the stones, she placed the ingredients she had brought from Caras Galadhon on top, scattering out the pouches of herbs around the bottom.  
  
When she was finished she was breathing deeply as she took a step back to admire her work. Finally, in the last part of the ritual, she lit the mound with a single flick of her wrist, sending a blazing flint on top of the pile. As the fragrant breeze filtered up into the air Pènne let herself fall gracefully to sit cross-legged on the grass, her back straight and her slanted eyes closed lightly. Taking a few deep, slow breaths the elf let the aromas fill her nostrils and pervade her senses as she felt herself become light in body as well as mind.  
  
And with a sense of complete peacefulness the elvish warrior let herself be taken away from this place of timeless enchantment, ready and able to complete the task ahead of her, knowing that her people would be waiting there, in that other place, to aid her if need be.  
  
And as her mind flew. .. searching, searching... she could feel the mental tugging of her protégé on the back of her mind, a constant reminder of her duty of the past few months and all that depended on her success. The tugging was increasing; growing alarmed and tinted with a burning, ripping pain. Unconsciously, the elf Pènne grimaced in sympathy for her outlandish charge and the burden that was being placed on her body.  
  
And with that thought, the elf frowned in concentration as her mind burst through the very foundations of the universe, soaring towards her destination with grim purpose. With every inch of her being, Pènne willed up all that she had been told of this bizarre, faraway place she was racing to in a desperate, last ditch effort to help not only her charge, but also her friend.  
  
And when she found it; this distant, alien place, she branched out her mind as far as she could reach, searching for the one she had been sent out by her kin to retrieve. And when she felt him, his mind heavy with sleep and thoughts of another, Pènne found that she was deeply pleased with what she saw. He was everything she had imagined him to be.  
  
Reaching out with her shimmering, silver fingers, the elf far from her home opened her arms to the sleeping man, and when his yielding body did not disapprove, she began to gather him to her.  
  
****  
  
His body stiffening in sleep, Jack O'Neill's eyes flew open.  
  
Gasping for breath, he jerked straight up in bed, his sheets pooling unnoticed around his waist, his bare chest heaving with the effort to suck in the air for some reason he desperately thought he needed. His hands flat on the bed at his sides, the man stared out into the moonlit room with unblinking, unseeing eyes. Abruptly, his breathing steadied, and the room fell once again into silence. Yet still the man sat there, up in bed, gazing out at nothing with glazed eyes.  
  
And then, suddenly, Jack's eyes started to droop heavily and he took one great sigh of regret before falling backwards, his head cushioned on his pillow. As his lashes brushed his cheek he unconsciously rolled over on his side, throwing out one arm to lay on the side of his bed that was these days forever cold and empty. He stiffened even as he was clutched by the unknown and pulled ruthlessly back into sleep.  
  
Deep in his mind Jack knew that this wasn't right, that something was terribly wrong, but as the blessed darkness was pulled over his eyes, he found that he really didn't care. Far from his present thoughts was the fact that he knew his young friends downstairs asleep in his den were going to eventually wake up and wonder what the problem was when Jack didn't appear for breakfast in the morning.  
  
But now, he felt his mind being dragged away from his bedroom and he failed to put up a resistance to this mistreatment of his body. Instead, he welcomed the darkness, the uncertainly of his future, and wondered in some misplaced, ironic thought, if this would bring him any closer to her.  
  
It was on that thought that a hard, pulsing hand clamped over his mind and all he knew was darkness.  
  
***  
  
"Come on, you silly man, open your eyes."  
  
In some distant part of his mind, the soft, husky voice registered but was not understood. Jack wallowed in the comfort of unconsciousness but refused to open his eyes. But even if his mind protested, his body started to swim to the surface and he could feel his arms and legs shuffling and jerking over smooth, silky bed sheets.  
  
It was with that thought Jack began to realise that all was not as it seemed, for he distinctly remembered placing cotton sheets on his bed only two days ago, not satin ones. He hadn't used satin in a long time.  
  
His eyes fluttering open with the first torrent of alarm, Jack found himself staring up at a huge domed ceiling of the most startling silver he had ever seen. Huge arches crossed and united above his head, all intertwined with what he could only identify as silver-coated leaves. Turning his head slightly so that his cheek brushed the velvety pillow beneath him, he stared out mammoth arched windows at misty, frost tinted trees.  
  
Blinking madly to clear his eyes, Jack forced himself to slowly sit up, still staring around himself in stunned alarm. For the first time, he looked down, and found himself still clad only in the black boxer shorts he had worn to bed. But this was definitely not the bed he remembered going to sleep in. It was large, airy and deliciously warm.  
  
Not knowing where he was, or what was going on, Jack looked quickly around for anything that could pose as a weapon, but came up short. There didn't seem to be anything in this room that wasn't a necessity. For the second time seemingly in a matter of minutes, he thought of Daniel and Cassandra, asleep on his couches at home. They had been up late the previous night and when he had come back from the bathroom in one of their intervals, Jack had found them both dead to the world and hadn't had the heart to move them. Like him, they had been emotionally drained and desperately needed the sleep.  
  
If anything, Sam's disappearance eight months before had proven to bind the young woman even further with the four men she affectionately called her uncles. Even though Cassie was heading off to University soon, she still spent as much time at the SGC as she was allowed. If General Hammond saw her roaming the corridors where she usually wouldn't be allowed access to, he certainly didn't say anything to her. He knew better than anyone that Sam Carter was remembered best in the many mazes of the SGC, and Cassandra wasn't the only one who went there for comfort.  
  
But now, Jack knew that Cassie and Daniel were the only ones who could even begin to help him in this new situation. Whatever aliens - and Jack didn't even bother thinking about anything else - had snatched him up to this bizarre place had obviously worked extremely fast if they hadn't woken the two sleeping beauties downstairs. He just hoped that if he wasn't back before morning, Daniel would make tracks to the SGC and sound the alarm. Otherwise, he was on his own.  
  
Looking around again, taking in every detail in the chamber that he could from his vantage point, he wondered absently who it was that *had* taken him and where they were.  
  
His question was seemingly answered when he heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening carefully to his right. Snapping his head around to face the sound and his visitor, Jack's body tensed as adrenaline started to pump madly through his veins. But what he saw caused his eyebrows to take flight on his forehead like a pair of startled birds.  
  
It was a woman. A very tall, strangely dressed woman, but one all the same. She moved through the doorway with unmistakable liquid grace, her strong, shapely legs evident through the olive leggings that she wore. Over them, she wore robes of a darker shade, almost black. But it was at her face that Jack stared, unable to tear his gaze away as he silently tracked her as she walked across the room, completely ignoring him.  
  
She had to most unusual face he had ever seen, even throughout all his travels through the 'gate. And when she came to a stop by the substantial writing desk that he hadn't paid much attention to till now, Jack found himself swallowing roughly as she placed the small woven basket she had been carrying onto its surface and turned in his direction.  
  
Her hair fell like black gold down her back, woven at the sides close to her skull in tiny braids to seemingly keep it out of her eyes. It also succeeded in emphasising the dramatic slant of her pale eyes and cheekbones. Jack allowed his eyes to follow the slope of her face up through her braided hair to the very tips of her pointed ears.  
  
All in all, it was a wonderful combination; one that Jack was very hesitant about admiring for much longer in case the owner of the extraordinary features began to grow annoyed. But when he finally met her eyes, strength to strength, Jack found them cold and passionless, as if something had reached in there and snuffed out the light.  
  
Pènne blinked suddenly, and Jack was rewarded with a look of avid curiosity fill them as she stared back at him, taking his measure in a way that he knew he could hide nothing.  
  
"You are Jack O'Neill, are you not?" she asked him abruptly, her voice low and husky, but in a way that told him she already knew the answer. But when he only nodded, not trusting his voice yet, she only gave one satisfied nod of her own and turned back towards the desk and the basket, apparently finished with him.  
  
Frowning at his evident dismissal, but sensing in some strange, misplaced way that he was in no danger, Jack rolled over to the other side of the bed, away from the woman, and planted his feet firmly on the soft ground beneath him. Not looking over his shoulder to see what her reaction was to his sudden behavior, he silently padded across to the window, clad only in his boxers, determined to find out more about the place he was in, if this woman refused to enlighten him.  
  
But he couldn't withhold the amazed whistle that escaped his lips as he leaned over the railing and gazed down the endless miles of trees beneath them. He stared above and around him, astonished, at the flawlessly designed systems of dwellings build high into the branches of the trees.  
  
Turning hastily, he pinned his cautious gaze on the dark haired woman, who was still standing there by the desk, watching him in return. "Where the hell am I?" he demanded, fed up with her silence. "And how the heck did I get here?"  
  
Unexpectedly Pènne smiled softly, as if she found the whole situation rather humorous. "Where do you want to be, young one?" she asked in return, not yet ready to answer the questions he so desired. "And where do you think you are?"  
  
Jack snorted rudely, placing his hands on his hips. "Cut the crap, lady. Answer my questions."  
  
Flicking her eyebrows up in answer, Pènne instead trained her gaze on the bed Jack had just vacated only a few moments before. All at once, her expression grew pinched and she grimaced as if suddenly remembering something important. Heaving a great sigh, she reached down to lightly brush her fingers over the soft covering.  
  
"You are here because you have been called for, and because you are needed." She looked up then, her eyes sorrowful. "And as for your other question, you are not really here, at all. You needn't fear about how you will return to your world, because, in a way, you never really left it."  
  
Jack's eyebrows met as he tried to figure out the meaning of what she had said. "You mean I'm actually dreaming?" he queried, that being the only conclusion he could come up with. But when she rewarded him with another slight smile, he knew his guess had been on the mark.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked, curious about the person who had gone to such trouble to bring him here. She obviously meant him no harm, and Jack was interested about her and her people, if they possessed the abilities she clearly did. They would make excellent allies.  
  
As if she knew the way his mind was working, the woman gave a lovely little laugh and turned around, giving him her back as she again went back to the desk, this time to fish around in the basket resting there. When she was seemingly finished, she came to stand before him, her fist bunched at her side, filled with whatever she had retrieved from the basket.  
  
As they were of the same height, she looked straight into his eyes, her own a brilliant blue and strong as steal. As she opened her mouth to speak, she reached across and picked up his right hand, placing whatever she had been holding in his palm, closing his fingers tightly over it with her own.  
  
"My name is Pènne of Rivendell, young one. My lineage is to Eleniando and to my lady, Arwen Undómiel. You stand now in the city of Lothlórien, in the realm of Celeborn and his lady, Galadriel." Suddenly, she gripped his hands tightly, giving them a small shake. "Remember these names, Jack O'Neill, for one day you will have great use for them. This city cares for your own, and is a place where all your kin are welcome."  
  
Then she took a step back and a soft, grim smile appeared on her lips. "You must go now, to where you are needed. Remember what I have said, and one day all will be well." Pènne held up her hand, palm facing him, and nodded her head slowly, her eyes flittering closed as she spoke, her voice sounding very far away.  
  
"Farewell, human. May we meet again."  
  
****  
  
When he next opened his eyes he knew instantly that it had happened again. His body freezing, Jack peered around the new chamber he was now standing in. It looked quite similar to the first one, yet this was much bigger and more closed in. Looking around, he could see that a small part of the room had been split off from the rest by a think curtain of cream cloth, which was now swaying gently in the breeze.  
  
Sighing loudly, Jack just stood there, wondering what he was going to do now. He was seriously beginning to think this Pènne lady had gotten the wrong person. He didn't know anyone on this planet. Hell! He didn't know what planet he was even on! It was all good knowing the name of the city he was in, but the name of the planet would have been nice to.  
  
Jack murmured the names Pènne had told him to remember, "Lothlórien.Rivendell...Celeborn and Galadriel", wondering all the while why this was so important and what it all had to do with him. Thinking back, he remembered very clearly Pènne saying that he was needed here, but for what purpose he was completely clueless.  
  
For the first time, Jack remembered Pènne placing something in his palm, and he quickly brought his hand up, opening his fingers slowly as he peered into his own hand, a frown appearing on his face as he realised what he was looking at. It was a pouch. A small, brown, hand woven pouch with a gold drawstring around the neck. At the same time, he suddenly noticed his arm, which, unlike before, was now covered in the soft, dark green material.  
  
Looking down at himself, Jack was stunned to find his black boxers gone and replaced with a long sleeved kind of robe. It was high necked, fell down to his ankles and was done up at his chest with a line of hocked buttons. Underneath, Jack was relieved to find he was also clad in a pair of loose, olive leggings. Not his normal attire, certainly, but on a whole, not bad.  
  
Jack had just decided that this entire experience was becoming completely bizarre when he heard it. He stilled instantly, his ears pricking for the sound he was adamant he heard, when he heard it again; the very soft moan of a woman.  
  
Jerking his head around silently, Jack stared at the cream cloth that separated the two sections of the chamber. Unless he was mistaken, the sound was coming from just beyond that fabric. Not liking the situation one bit, Jack knew he had no other choice but to investigate. Pènne had taken him here for a reason, and if he was of a mind to trust the strange looking woman, which if he was honest with himself, he was, he knew she would want him to go have a look.  
  
Absently tucking the brown pouch into the folds of his new robes, Jack silently padded across the floor of the chamber, wondering what he was going to find on the other side. But when he got there, gently pushing aside the cloth, he got the surprise of his life when he found what he was looking for.  
  
The second part of the chamber was entirely taken up by a large bed, which had obviously been pushed up against the wall with the windows so that the person in it could look out into the trees. Like the bed he had found himself in, it was covered from one end to the other in pearly silver sheets. But this one also had a light cream duvet, which had obviously been pushed down the end of the bed by the person in it.  
  
And it was that person who had instantly caught Jack O'Neill's attention. For asleep under the sheets of the bed was the shape of a woman; her legs slightly tucked up to her chest as she slept. Jack felt his heart start to beat madly in his chest even before his legs began to take him around the side of the bed not pushed up against the window, where the woman's blonde head was folded up in the crook of her bare arm.  
  
His body had grown completely numb by the time he came to a stop at the side of the bed, staring down at the sleeping face of the woman whose eyelids were fluttering slightly as she obviously fought unconsciousness. For the rest of his life, Jack would remember this moment as clearly as it had happened yesterday. The way his legs had given out from under him, all thoughts of Pènne and Lothlórien forgotten as he fell to his knees, not feeling the pain of doing so.  
  
It was the sound of crying that had snapped him back to any sense of normalcy, as when he brought his hands up to touch his face, he found it wet with tears. But he didn't care, he just reached out and placed a finger on the sleeping woman's face, the touch as soft as a feather as if he expected her to disappear at any second.  
  
But she did not. She stayed there and so did the wet smudge of his tears on her cheek. And when her eyes started to flutter more intently, and finally open blue to his overwhelmed gaze, Jack felt his heart almost stop in his chest as she stared at him, her eyes sleepy and not quite focused. She rolled over onto her back, the blanket pushed down past her breasts to reveal her body clad in a silky white gown.  
  
Even as he stared at her, unable to speak, Jack felt the first tell tale signs of alarm building up in him as he finally tore his gaze away from her sleepy face and quickly look down her body at her stomach. Even under the covers, there was no mistaking the flat plains of her body that shouldn't be there.  
  
More urgent now, Jack reached out and cupped her face in his hands, turning it not so gently in his direction. He saw her eyes open wide with the treatment and finally lock onto his face, her eyes bright and alert. She jerked out of his hands the second she caught sight of his face, which Jack later told himself wasn't surprising. He watched, stunned, as she scooted across the other side of the bed and sat there, against the wall, staring at him with her chest rising and falling rapidly.  
  
Then suddenly, a look of complete fear filled her eyes as she glanced down at herself, her hands flying to her belly and she gave a cry of dismay to find it flat. Her face jerked up again and she stared at him in complete disbelief for a couple of second before she whispered so quietly that he almost missed it, "Jack?"  
  
And with that, Jack felt himself cave in, as for the first time in over eight months he heard his name come from the lips of the one woman he had waited years to first hear it from. "Oh god." He heard himself say in response as her face suddenly crumpled, her hands gripping the material at her stomach tightly.  
  
He had just sat on the edge of the bed when she flew at him, across the bed and into his arms, her slim body fitting into his chest easily. His own arms came around her in a vice grip that he knew had to be hurting her but he couldn't let her go. He just buried his nose in her hair, which in some part of his mind he noticed was a lot longer than he remembered, and breathed in the smell of her, one that he had been missing hungrily for the past long months.  
  
In some part of his mind, Jack wondered if this was even real, if he was actually here, holding her like this. But then he pushed that thought aside, for he really didn't care to know the answer. He only tightened his grip around her waist and squeezed his eyes closed. She was chanting something to herself, he could hear the muffled sound against his robes, but he couldn't understand the words.  
  
Pushing back, he gripped Sam by her bare forearms and stared into her fear filled face. Finally, her eyes looked up and locked with his and he felt her body begin to shake.  
  
She looked around herself suddenly, at the bed they were sitting on, at the rest of the room, and a deep frown appeared on her face, one of complete confusion. Her eyes were flitting madly to each corner of the room, and Jack could see from her expression that she didn't recognize the room at all.  
  
"Sam?" he asked then, his tone urgent. Her eyes snapped back to his and she was shaking her head slowly in disbelief. He felt her hands crawl up his chest to grip a handful of his robes desperately.  
  
"No, no, no!" she suddenly cried, wrenching her body out of his arms to spin around, placing her palms flat on the wall. She had just started to pound on the wall when he reached over and grabbed her hands in his much stronger ones and pulled them back, gathering them into his chest.  
  
"Arwen," she whispered, "Galadriel, where are you?"  
  
"Sam!" Jack cried loudly, trying to snap her out of it. But it was only when he finally slapped her quickly on her cheek that she immediately stilled, her breath still coming in shallow pants. She stared at him as if she couldn't believe her eyes.  
  
"I shouldn't be here, Jack!" she cried, shaking her head. "I shouldn't be here, not now! And neither should you!" Reaching up, she covered her mouth with her hand as if she was about to be sick. Her face had gone a deathly white and her eyes were huge with panic.  
  
Not knowing what the hell was going on, Jack reached out and grabbed a handful of her long blonde hair, forcing her head around to look at him. Knowing that they weren't going to understand anything unless he could get out of Sam what she knew, he found her eyes and held them, speaking to her in a low, even tone that he knew she had to remember from before she disappeared. Jack had so many questions he wanted to ask her he didn't know where to start.  
  
"Sam," he said calmly, "Sam, listen to me." The tone of voice obviously worked because she turned back to him, her eyes filled with startled surprise. "Do you know where we are?"  
  
She didn't answer right away, only lowered her head and began to shake it from side to side. "Yes, I know," she whispered. "But I don't understand what happened. How are you here?" she asked, her voice laced with bewilderment. "This shouldn't be happening."  
  
"Why?" Jack inquired, but she didn't seem to hear him. She was staring down at the bed they were sitting on, her eyes blank. Slowly, she reached out and fingered the cloth, as if she was making sure it was real. "I was here, Jack. Just a few moments ago, lying in this bed. I don't really remember; I must have lost consciousness or something, but what happened? Where did everyone go?"  
  
Again, Sam reached down to lay her hand on her belly, fingers grasping around the flat plains. And it was at that moment, looking down at her pale, slim fingers that Jack O'Neill finally understood.  
  
Thinking back, he heard Pènne's word's play through his mind clearly as she was standing there next to the bed, whispering them again into his ear. He remembered what she had said, what she had wanted him to do. Closing his eyes for a second, Jack also realised what she had in fact, also tried to hint in not so many words. For he knew now that he would soon return to his bed back in Colorado Springs, and that Sam would stay here, wherever they were, in this strange, silver place in the trees. There was no way he could stop it.  
  
Opening his eyes, he stared at the blonde woman sitting on the bed opposite him, clad in the while robed gown stitched with golden leaves. Unlike him, who was unfamiliar with his new style of clothes, Sam was holding herself like a person used to them close to her skin, and Jack knew she had worn them before.  
  
"You were having the baby, weren't you?" he whispered, his voice calm but his mind exploding with the thought of it. But as she just looked at him, her eyes sad, Jack knew she was suddenly remembering what she had lost, what she had left behind. Silently, she just nodded her head, her fists unconsciously bunching at her stomach.  
  
"Yes," she answered, her voice faint.  
  
Jack nodded, feeling everything fall into place. Whatever people were responsible for him being here, whether that be Pènne or not, he understood Sam knew them, and knew them well. Looking at her now, her suddenly slim body tense in his arms with the fear of loosing her baby, Jack saw how good she looked and knew that she had been well taking care of. These people were obviously her friends, and cared for her deeply.  
  
Gathering her in closer, he stared over her shoulder to the room outside the cloth, and wondered what was happening there, in that other place where Sam had been taken from, and when would it stop? When would he be taken back to Colorado, where Daniel and Cassie hopefully still slept downstairs in his den. Tightening his arms, he squeezed his eyes closed, wishing the last eight months away, yet wondering what had happened to Sam since then, how she had ended up in this place with people like Pènne.  
  
For he knew them now, knew what they were capable of and their motives for doing so. This was a gift; he was willing to bet his life on it. A gift from a group of people he knew nothing about, but who cared for Sam when he could not. There was nothing they could do about it now, nothing he could do to go warn Daniel that wherever he was he was safe, and that for now, the SGC should not be contacted.  
  
The only thing he wondered now was when it would end, when would he open his eyes and find this had all disappeared? And what would he do then, knowing that Sam was here; thankfully alive and well, but in a place that he could not reach?  
  
But for now, he just refused to let her go, knowing deep in the coldest corner of his being that their separation after this would probably be for good, and that he would never see her or the baby again.  
  
****  
  
To be continued..  
  
****  
  
NB: [A translation of the word, "Eleniando" from the Boulders of Eleniando].  
  
[Elen, Eleni, Elenion]: Quenyan words for 'Star' (Elenion is the  
  
collective plural). [Ando]: Quenyan word for 'Gate' [Eleniando]: Add Eleni and Ando together to get `Stargate'. [Straight  
  
Quenya]  
  
[All speculation of the Boulders of Eleniando and Pènne's involvement will further be explained at a later time. You will just have to be patient! ( Also, I'll just add so that I don't get in any trouble, anything to do with the Boulders of Eleniando are entirely fictional, made up from my own little mind, and are not taken from any of Tolkien's works. All, that is, expect the name, which I made up from the Quenyan language of the High- Elves from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"] 


	9. Pènne’s Gift

Hola! Just a quick note from me, the author, about "The White Lady of Gondor" that you might like to read before scrolling down to this latest chapter. I just wanted to tell you all that Part 9 will be the first half of the conclusion of what I am calling, the 'beginning' of this story. Part 10, which continues right where Part 9 ends, is the second and final part of this beginning. I know that you are probably thinking that if the first ten parts are the beginning, then when the hell is she going to finish this story, and in a way, I will agree with you. I had originally intended the beginning to be around four or five parts, and here I am now, concluding it at 10! But there isn't much I can do about that now, I guess. :D For a bit of further info, I'll tell you that the rest of the story will be set a number of years into the future. All the characters from the books, for example; Frodo and the Hobbits, Legolas, Gimli, the people of Rohan and Gondor..everyone, to put it simply, will be included, of that have no doubt. I could never write a LoTRs story without including the main characters, and truthfully, I'm just dying to get on and write about the biggest spunk of all, that blonde elf who we all adore! But never fear, Earth, the SGC and our boys on SG-1 will also be included a lot more in the remainder of the story than they have been up till now. How this will happen, and how Jack will move on now that he knows what Sam's fate as been, you will just have to wait and see! :D Also, another thank you must go out to the lovely people who have sent me reviews faithfully after each post. It's great to know what people think after they read each new installment, and it's a way of letting me know if i'm doing something wrong, lol. Kim [aka Damia]  
  
***  
  
"Farewell, my hobbits!" said Théoden. "May we meet again in my house! There you shall sit beside me and tell me all that your hearts desire: the deeds of your grandsires, as far as you can reckon them; and we will speak of Tobold the Old and his herb-lore. Farewell!" The hobbits bowed low. "So that is the King of Rohan!" said Pippin in an undertone. "A fine old fellow. Very polite."  
  
King Théoden of Rohan, to the Hobbits, Pippin and Merry at the ruin gates of Isengard, [The Two Towers]  
  
***  
  
The next half an hour was the longest of Sam's life.  
  
Never could she remember feeling so confused, but concerning the matter of her missing child; so calm. Sam knew that peculiarly, she had gone from outright panic in finding her and Jack in her sleeping loft when in truth, she should have been giving birth to their long awaited child, but now, finding herself in this unusual situation brought nothing but calm acceptance and the sense that all she had to do was be understanding and patient. Oh, the mystification was there, in bucket loads in fact, but she knew that her friends were out there, somewhere else, helping her in whatever way they could. Sam trusted Arwen and Galadriel with her life, and she knew all she had to do was convince Jack of that.  
  
In the time it had taken her and Jack to come to the conclusion that nothing was about to be answered for them in the near future and they had both decided to move out of her sleeping chamber in favour of the morning room, Sam had run through the events of the past few hours over in her mind what seemed like a million times. But yet, she was always faced with the unacceptable notion that simply, none of this made any sense to her Earth- born and trained mind.  
  
From where he was standing by the tall window, gazing out into the elvish city with critical, narrowed eyes, she could tell the situation was far from Jack's liking as well. Sam felt a deep sense of pity for the man as she watched him quite openly from her seat on the wooden couch. He was standing with both fists wrapped around the railing; knuckles clenching tightly before easing away as if he would suddenly become aware that he was hurting himself. But only seconds later the process would be repeated.  
  
His face was partly hidden from her in the shadow of a tall, arching tree branch outside her window, but from what of it she could see, Sam had realised long ago that he was going through a furious inner battle with himself as to what they should be doing. Without him having to tell her, she knew the argument would be should they run now? While they had the chance? Or should they put their trust in a strange bunch of people who had plucked him out of his bed and seemingly thrust him through the endless darkness of space and who currently were in possession of their child?  
  
Lifting her gaze from her lap, where she had been idly fiddling with the lace of her silver robed gown, Sam silently stood and walked over to him, not knowing how she was going to do it, but knowing that somehow, she must reassure him that they were in no danger, and for the little she truly knew of these people, she was adamant that when the time was right, they would be returned to where they belonged and that the baby would be fine.  
  
Coming to stand behind the man who was officially her Commanding Officer, but who meant so much more to her, Sam paused, wondering what she should do as he had failed to acknowledge her. It had been this way for the best part of the 10 minutes Jack had been by the window. He hadn't moved, and certainly no word had left his mouth.  
  
Reaching up a hand, Sam rested her fingers lightly on her partner's forearm, wincing as he visibly stiffened at her touch and jerked away from her. With a dejected sigh, she let her hand drop silently to her side once again. She wondered how her touch had affected him, how it had felt . She in fact, could feel her entire body humming pleasantly with the touch of her fingers to his body, even if it had only been a cloth covered forearm. It was almost as if the scene just before in her chamber hadn't happened, and they hadn't spent what seemed like a million years clutching each other as if they had been separated for a lifetime or two.  
  
Staring across at his arm with a glassy expression, Sam felt her hand twitch at her side, wanting nothing more to reach out again and make sure that Jack was actually real. That he was, in fact, standing here in Lothlórien with her, dressed in an elvish attire that oddly enough, suited him remarkably well. The only sobering factor in her little dream was that he seemed to be angry with her.  
  
"Jack?" Sam asked hesitantly, unsure of what he was going to say, or if he decided to acknowledge her at all. She told herself that he was perfectly within his rights to be angry at her, and that if the situation had been reversed, she would be furious with him if she had come across him living amongst strangers perfectly unharmed while she had most probably been searching for him with all kinds of dreadful scenarios forming in her mind of his outcome.  
  
With a start, Sam took a step backwards from Jack as if he had slapped her, her hand coming up quickly to cover her mouth, but not in time to smother the horrified gasp that flew from her lips as images of Edora and Laria flashed through her mind. Especially Laria.  
  
Is that what he thinks? Sam asked herself desperately. That I've made the same mistake he did and accepted the fact that I was never going to see them again? That I've gotten on with my life without him?  
  
"Oh my god!" Sam whispered in an appalled tone as she realised that was probably exactly how he felt about her. Not being able to bring herself to look at him any second longer, the blonde woman spun to make a mad dash for the door. But as it turned out, this was what finally forced Jack to turn around and face her, a bewildered expression on his face.  
  
Startled to see Sam about to bolt to the door, he reached out and latched onto her wrist to stop her, but dropped it instantly when she froze with his touch and spat out in a low tone, "Get your hand off me." Then, in an almost pleading tone, she added, "Please..."  
  
"Sam?" he asked, alarmed at her tone. Forgetting her previous words, he pinned her with both arms and forced her to face him. But even then she lowered her head so he couldn't see her face. "What's the matter?" Jack asked, confused with her behaviour. In truth, he had all but forgotten that she was in the room with him, she had been so quiet. Also, the fact that he had had so many thoughts and questions swimming around in his head hadn't helped the matter, but he still hadn't a clue what would have made her act this way.  
  
But looking down at the top of her shaking head, her face hidden from him by her long hair, Jack had to admit to himself that he also hadn't a clue what to say to her. And for that he could have kicked himself. He had spent the past eight months burning for her, not allowing himself to completely accept the fact that she was actually gone, and now that he finally had the chance to be with her again, however long that may be, he was wasting it brooding over their fate by that blasted window. What exactly had he been thinking about, anyway? he wondered. How important could it have really been?  
  
It was then that Sam finally raised her eyes and stared up at him, through the wisps of her hair, and Jack was stunned to find the hurt that was swimming in them.  
  
"It's true, isn't it?" she hissed at him through clenched teeth, "You think I'd given up on you."  
  
Shocked, Jack just stared at her, wondering where in hell that had come from and what had happened to make her think it. "What!?" he managed to sputter, but it was too late. She had pulled out of his arms and went to stand on the other side of the room, her back to him, her whole body shaking visibly through her gown with an emotion Jack couldn't name. Anger or sorrow?  
  
Running an agitated hand through his hair, Jack took a step towards her then thought better of it. Instead, he took a deep breath, swallowed, and stared at her ivory back.  
  
"Carter, please," he whispered. "The Sam I know would know I would never think that. Not in a million years." As she didn't answer him, he ploughed on. "Now, I'm going to be honest with you here and just come out and tell you that I wouldn't have the slightest idea what is going on here. I sure as hell don't understand what the heck you've been doing here for the past eight months, but what I do know is that somewhere in this bloody place is our kid. So if you want to yell at me for some godforsaken reason, then I'm willing to let you have your say. But can we please find out what the hell is going on first?"  
  
It seemed that this got the desired response Jack was going for, or a bit of it at least, because as he watched, hoping and waiting, Sam's shoulder's seemed to droop as if a huge weight had been lifted off them. She took a deep breath, but still didn't turn around. His heart filling with sympathy at the sight of her, Jack risked taking a few hesitant steps towards her and when he next spoke, his voice was stronger.  
  
"Because I'm sure as hell not ready to loose you again until someone sits me down and explains everything, as slowly and as many times as I damn well want, do you hear me?"  
  
As he finished, he reached her motionless form and put a gentle hand on her hip, squeezing tightly as he felt her sharp in take of breath with his touch. Encouraged by the fact that she hadn't pulled away, he used his other hand to slowly turn her around and enclosed her within his arms as they stood there in the middle of her lounge.  
  
He felt it when she finally gave in to him as a huge shudder rippled through her body from her head to her toes as she reached up to clutch a handful of his robe. "Oh, god, I'm so sorry, Jack. It's just."  
  
But Jack just shook his head. "Don't, Sam, please," he whispered, burying his face in her hair. "I've waited eight months for this."  
  
Her grip on him tightened when she heard that, and the two of them fell into silence as they held each other in a way that told that they were trying to make the past eight months disappear. After a time, they finally pulled away, both well aware of the fact that the hand of Sam's hip stayed exactly where it was. Slightly embarrassed, Sam turned her face away, suddenly shy in the company of the man she had longed for, and truthfully, who she had wondered if she would ever see again.  
  
Even though the silence was comfortable and calm, when Sam finally forced herself to look up at him again, she frowned slightly as she caught sight of his eyes. Or more precisely, what he was gazing at.  
  
Following his lead, she dropped her gaze and found him staring at her chest with a look of deep thoughtfulness. Self-conscious, Sam reached up and crossed her arms across her breasts, causing Jack to blink and redden slightly as he quickly looked up, clearing out his throat as he did so.  
  
"Sorry," he said gruffly, now looking anywhere but at her body. "It's just that they're so, ah, I mean.."  
  
Suddenly, Sam found her whole face breaking out in a wide grin as she watched him try and explain. She knew exactly what he was talking about and had to admit, her body had, well, changed slightly since he had seen her last. Cupping his hot check tenderly with one hand, she found herself giggling softly and was surprised that she could even manage it.  
  
Sam then felt as if she had a million questions of her own to ask him and didn't know where to start. Taking his hand in hers, she lead him over to the couch she had been sitting on and sat down, pleased when he did the same next to her.  
  
When they were both comfortable, the strangest thing happened. Without a word having been passed between them, both Major and Colonel tuned their heads in a mirrored gesture towards the door, almost as if they were expecting something to happen, for someone to walk through now that they had cleared the air between them.  
  
But when nothing happened they both raised their eyebrows and looked away from the door, but the peculiar sensation remained and Sam felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end like she was sprouting a pair of wings.  
  
"I could have sworn.." Jack muttered loudly, a deep frown on his face as he turned back around and leaned his head back into the couch. Turning his face so that his check brushed the covering, he stared across at Sam where she sat next to him. "Did you get the feeling that Pènne was going to walk in just now?" he asked, his voice curious.  
  
But instead, Jack found that he had surprised her for Sam's eyebrows took flight on her forehead and she leaned back to stare at him in astonishment. "Pènne?" she repeated, her tone incredulous. "When did you meet Pènne?"  
  
Confused, Jack lifted up a hand and waved it in the general direction of the door, then her bedroom. "Ahh, excuse me?" he asked, "What is that suppose to mean? She's the blasted person who took me here, for crying out loud!"  
  
"Jack, Pènne's my friend, she wouldn't have been able to do this." Then Sam got a sheepish expression that instantly put Jack on his guard. "And, well, she's also kinda my bodyguard." seeing the startled look on her companion's face she quickly added, "... Not that that really means anything here, but we're *really* not going to talk about that now."  
  
"The fact is I really don't see Pènne having much to do with this, if any. If anybody here is going to be able to get you from Earth and back again, my bet is going to be with Galadriel or Gandalf." Jack then watched as her eyes grew sad. "Although I can't see Gandalf messing around with things like this, not now anyway."  
  
Watching her warily, Jack said, "Sam, I saw her, she was talking to me and I sure as hell remember her saying her name was Pènne." Screwing up his face, Jack tried to recall the names Pènne had told him to remember. "She said something about a person called Arwen, and something about a city named Lothlórien." He started to wave his hands around in a motion that made absolutely no sense what so ever to Sam.  
  
"Arwen?" Sam gasped. "Pènne said this has something to do with Arwen?" She looked as if someone thrown a bucket of freezing water on her face. "How on earth is that possible?" Jack didn't answer, for it seemed the question was spoken out loud and had been for her only.  
  
As Sam grew silent, Jack used the time to examine her properly and racked his eyes up and down her body, over the curves of her legs through the ivory gown and up her waist. He lingered once more over her chest, feeling his heart stop dead at the sight of her swollen, pale breasts heaving against the low neckline of her gown. It was this, if nothing else, that told Jack that she was, or had been, pregnant, and with his kid no less.  
  
As he hadn't seen her body grow as her pregnancy progressed, there was some part of him that still refused to believed that he was a father again, and that somewhere, his child was waiting to be introduced to him. Over the past eight months back on Earth, he had found himself mentally ticking the months off calendars whenever he happened to catch sight of one. It had been almost as if he had wanted this part of the process to hold on to, now that he no longer had the real thing within his grasp.  
  
Feeling a stirring low in his body as he concentrated intently on her body, Jack quickly lifted his eyes and came to rest on Sam's face. She wore that expression that meant she was deep in thought and Jack swallowed hard at the sight of it. Over the past eight months there were millions of things he had come to miss about her, and that darn expression was one of them.  
  
It was only then that he realised she was speaking to him. "How are the others, Jack?" she asked, her voice soft and hesitant, as if she was afraid of the answer.  
  
Blinking to clear his thoughts, the first image that sprang to mind with her question was Daniel and Cassandra asleep in his house back in Colorado Springs. Clasping his hands tightly together in his lap, he hurried to reassure her. "On a whole, there all fine, Sam." He said gently. "It's me and the boys on the team now, but I guess you figured that out already."  
  
Almost unconsciously, he tore his eyes away from her sombre face and looked down, his voice rough with emotion when he finally kept talking. "It was hard, at first..not knowing where you were." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her clenching her hands in her lap, bunching up the material of her gown.  
  
"But we coped, some of us better than others." The remark was out of his mouth before he could stop it and he closed his eyes tightly as images from the past eight months welled up in his brain. Of him lying on his couch with an empty liquor bottle on the carpet beside him, tears staining his face as he prayed for unconsciousness, or the night when her service was being held at Janet and Cassie's house but which found him alone, all dressed to go, but sitting on his front porch with his car keys in his hand, unable to move for the pain.  
  
Or last week, being called up at four in the morning by an unknown, tearful teenage girl with a plea and an address, only to get there and find the person who had once been his little friend with her head in a toilet bowl heaving up a bottle of Janet's best wine. Cassie had been crying in agony while a party of much older young people raged in the background and a handful of her friends waited outside, frightened looks on their faces as they watched their companion finally fall apart with grief that they could not understand.  
  
It had been in those few seconds, standing in the doorway of a stranger's house, staring down in horror at Cassandra and seeing what the disappearance of her dear friend had done to the girl that had finally snapped him out of his own self-pity and take a good look around him and see what Sam's disappearance had done to others.  
  
As he had fallen to his knees beside her, lovingly picking up a handful of Cassie's long hair to keep it away from her face as she finished her unpleasant task, rubbing her back and murmuring soothing words to her in comfort, Jack had felt the tears prickling in his eyes as he thought of what Sam would say if she saw her little protege like that.  
  
And now, looking across at her finally, seeing the uncertain yet eager look in her eyes as she waited for news of her friends, Jack didn't know what to tell her. The truth? That he had just found out that for the past four months Cassandra had been sneaking out of her house every Friday and Saturday night to get lost in a dangerous haze of alcohol with her friends because it was the only way she could get through the day being at school, surrounded by people who couldn't understand what she was going through?  
  
Or that Daniel had shut himself in his office or escaped to vast corners of the Earth, or even Galaxy, in the pretence to catch up on his archaeological work but when in truth, he couldn't stand to be around the SGC long enough to catch sight of something that would remind him of her?  
  
And all of that was nothing compared to what Jack had done to himself.  
  
Sam must have seen that he was having trouble answering, for she reached over and covered his hand with hers for comfort, but the gesture only made Jack feel worse. There was no way in hell he was going to tell her that the only family she really had was falling apart without her. Not when she was going to remain here with only those words to mull over when he returned to Earth. Jack knew that she would only proceed to grow guiltier and dejected as time went on, and there was no way he was going to leave her with that.  
  
"Daniel's keeping busy," he muttered, forcing himself to speak. "He's taken Jonas with him to Egypt a few times on digs and gotten the guy officially hooked on Archaeology, if he wasn't already." Forcing a pathetic grin, he turned his head slightly to catch a look at her face. "To tell you the truth, it drives me and Teal'c mad."  
  
Sam smiled, feeling herself get lost again in the world of her friend's back home. "And Janet and Cass? Has she started University yet?" She flashed him a sheepish smile. "I lost count of the months ages ago, sorry." Sam trailed off, her smile faulting on her face as she noticed the flash of pain that had filled his eyes ever so briefly with the mention of the Fraisers.  
  
Clearing out his throat, Jack wouldn't meet her eye as he answered, "No, she's got a few months to go yet. Finally decided on Archaeology, if you believe it. Janet was a bit surprised, but you should have seen Daniel, he was ecstatic. Seems to me that that man has had more influence on her than we thought. Seems to think he's going to get his own little sidekick or something, by the way he was going on about it. If you ask me, which of course, nobody did, we have far to much of that Archaeology stuff as it is, but what do I know?"  
  
Finally, he looked at her again and his eyes were sad. "She had a hard time when you disappeared, Sam. I don't think she really understood that you weren't coming back until we had a service for you." Seeing the distressed look that filled her face, he hurried on, "She's okay now, though. She's doing much better." And that was the truth, or as much of it as he was willing to tell her.  
  
"And Teal'c and my father?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself almost unconsciously as she swallowed deeply, taking in what he had told her.  
  
Jack sat up a bit at that, glad for the fact that at least he had some good news for her. "They are both good, last time that I saw them, anyway." When she looked startled and not a little bit confused, he squeezed her hand and gave a small smile of encouragement. "Teal'c and the other Rebel Jaffa have had a busy month. They're actively recruiting members now, not so much in secret. And you will be pleased to hear that with the help of Jacob and a few others, they have successfully overthrown two minor System Lords and gained the support of their Jaffa. Teal'c is due back on Earth in a few days actually, he's got a meeting with the Joint Chiefs all set up to discuss the Jaffa/ Human alliance and I'm sure he's going to impress the pants off all of them, of course. "  
  
He smiled at her again, trying to brighten her spirits. "He's bringing Rya'c with him, I think."  
  
Sam shook her head slowly, a dazed look on her face. "It's so good to hear about everyone, I've been dying to know how they're all getting on." Looking up, she gave a flick of her eyebrows and her smile widened. "It can get very frustrating being here by myself, I've got no one to talk to about any of that stuff."  
  
Eager to hear about what she had been up to, Jack leaned forward. "Now that we are on the topic, just what is this place, Sam? And what are these people?" He shook his head in disbelief. "They sure as hell aren't like any aliens I've ever meet before."  
  
But in answer, Sam only frowned thoughtfully. "That's probably because I'm not sure they actually are aliens."  
  
Bewildered, Jack just arched his eyebrows. "What? Of course they are! What else would they be?"  
  
But whatever answer she was going to give, Jack would never know, for at that instance there was a resounding knock on the door and Sam clamped her mouth shut as deep relief flooded her face. Even though Jack had jumped to his feet with the sound, Sam stayed seated; merely turning her head towards the door in curiosity as she waited to see whom it had been that had spun her life into a tailspin all over again.  
  
But when the door finally opened and a figure slowly walked through, Jack heard the overjoyed gasp that was ripped from Sam's mouth a second before she shot up from the couch and bolted towards the door and the person standing in the archway. Stepping back hastily so that she wouldn't bowl him over, Jack looked quickly over at the old man that Sam had launched herself at and was now hugging tightly, while at the same time laughing joyfully as tears streamed down her face.  
  
He had to be the oldest, most unusual person Jack had ever laid eyes on. And it wasn't only the long grey beard, pointy grey hat and long grey robes that had made Jack come to this conclusion. There was just something about him, a crackling energy and power that he had noticed as soon as the old man had walked into the room. And as he watched now, as Sam embraced the old man with all the warmth of a dear friend, Jack suddenly knew without any doubt that it was this man, this old figure leaning on his crooked staff, who had gotten Sam where she was now.  
  
Straining his ears, he could hear Sam crying into the man's shoulder, "You came! You came! I thought something dreadful had happened to you!" She tilted her head back to peer into his face. "What happened, Gandalf? Is the baby okay?"  
  
It was at that moment, as Jack waited just as eagerly for the old man's answer that a movement out of the corner of his eye caught Jack's attention, drawing his eyes away from the pair. His eyes opened wide in recognition as he saw a dark haired, lithe figure silently enter the room behind the old man and smile slightly as she watched the two embracing friends. As Jack took a step forward, Pènne's eyes snapped over to him and appraised him calmly but with a glint in her eyes that told him not to take another step.  
  
But as if turned out, his sudden movement hadn't gone unnoticed by the other new figure in the room and the old man abruptly turned to glance at him over the top of Sam's golden head. Uncomfortable with being assessed by all corners, Jack frowned back at him pointedly. But this seemingly pleased the old man, for he chuckled softly and gently drew away from a still beaming Sam.  
  
Even as Pènne stayed where she was, silent and watchful by the doorway, the old man slowly walked over to Jack and came to stand before him, looking him up and down from beneath his bushy grey eyebrows. Whatever final conclusion he came to about Jack, he didn't reveal a thing, only nodding thoughtfully and tilting his head to the side as he said in a clear and firm voice, "So this is the father."  
  
Even as Jack immediately opened his mouth to reply, he realised that the statement hadn't been addressed to him at all, but actually to Sam, who silently glided up to stand beside the old man, gently placing a hand on his arm. She shot Jack a quick, reassuring grin as if to tell him that the old man meant no harm, but failing on all accounts but succeeding in baffling Jack even more as to why she was smiling so broadly. Who was this man to her?  
  
"Yes." Jack answered anyway, then feeling even more foolish as the seconds ticked by and nobody, not even Sam, made any comments to his claim of paternity of Sam's child.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like a million years to Jack, the old man nodded again. "We shall see," was the only answer it seemed he was willing to give on that matter. But on others, he appeared friendly on all accounts. Reaching out, the old man placed a strong hand on Jack's shoulder.  
  
"I am Gandalf the Grey; wizard and friend of the fair folk of Lothlórien. Before we go on, it must be said that you are here not by my wishes, but those of the White Queen Galadriel, and her granddaughter, the lady Arwen of Rivendell. It was not my magic that brought you here, for not even I could manage such a feat."  
  
As he listened, stunned and bewildered at Gandalf's words, Jack noticed Sam jerk as she too, listened to the old man. But when she slowly turned to stare, dismayed, at Pènne who had come to stand slightly off to the side of the three of them, Jack saw her eyes narrow as she thought over this new development of her so called bodyguard in her mind. If the situation had been even the slightest bit different, Jack would probably have smirked at her look of confusion and at the fact that he had been right, for once, and she way off the mark.  
  
"I have been told by the Lady Galadriel that you are to be treated according to the respect given to Samantha by the people of this fair city, and on this I have no cause for doubt. But you are to be aware that there are people in this city that demand respect, and from you, they will receive it." His last words had not been a request.  
  
Silence fell as the old man abruptly finished and truth be told, Jack didn't know what to say. But then Sam was frowning up at Gandalf, clearly disapproving of his words, and the wizard turned to glance down at her quickly, almost as if he had sensed the sudden change in her mood.  
  
"What is it, young one?" he inquired of her quietly, his tone soft and reserved for her only. But when the blonde woman lifted her head to gaze up into his eyes, he must have seen an unspoken question looming within their depths for he only smiled and nodded his head again. "What is it that I see you impatient to ask of me, but of what you refuse to speak? Can I assume that you are anxious to inquire about another, and not only your child?"  
  
His words were obviously teasing, but Sam clearly didn't find them humorous for she scowled up at her friend and crossed her arms over her chest, flatly refusing to answer.  
  
It was Pènne who broke the silent battle between the two companions, coming to stand before Sam and placing a calming hand on her arm. Sam, who from the look on her face, had been clearly content to put all thoughts of Pènne's hidden agenda to the back of her mind for the moment, looked her bodyguard squarely in the eye, still scowling deeply. But Pènne ignored her black expression and after shooting a quick disapproving frown at Gandalf, she smiled kindly at her.  
  
"I know you have many questions, my friend, but this is not the right time for them to be answered. Even thought the Grey One refuses to help ease your mind, I will aid you by saying that yes, the Lord Aragorn also arrived early with the coming of the dawn, and he now awaits you anxiously with his Lady and the folk of Lothlórien."  
  
The words meant nothing to Jack, but the look on Sam's face said it all. From the naked relief and satisfaction that burst into her eyes, Jack knew that whoever this Aragorn person was, he obviously meant a great deal to Sam.  
  
Clenching his mouth into a thin line, Jack felt his body grow cold with a sudden notion that she had paired off with this Aragorn person during the eight months she had been stranded on this planet. Squeezing his fists into balls at his side, he told himself that he had no claim on her anymore, apart from the baby, and if had she found comfort with someone else, then he couldn't blame her. He certainly had during his little sojourn on Edora.  
  
Totally unaware of Jack's dark thoughts, Sam looked eagerly at Pènne with hope in her eyes. "Can we go back now?" Without waiting for an answer, she glanced up at Gandalf. "Is the baby okay?"  
  
Smiling down at her fondly, Gandalf shot Jack a quick glance before answering her, almost as if he wanted Jack to know that he was involved in this conversation as much as anyone else. "Your child thrives, Samantha, under the watchful eye and care of the lady Galadriel. And yes, it is time for us to return to the proper place."  
  
With his words, Sam suddenly shot Jack a troubled look and reached out to grip his wrist tightly. "Pènne?" she asked; her voice firm. "I want Jack to come back with us before you send him to Earth. He has just as much right to this child as I do." Not looking at his face, Sam swallowed deeply, but she was resolute when she continued, now having caught the attention of both newcomers. "We know that you have to take him back to Earth, and we understand. But we need more time."  
  
Pènne was silent as she watched her charge, listening and weighing her words. After Sam had finished on a soft, questioning note, the dark haired elf closed her eyes slowly and looked down, ignoring the two humans who now stood, Sam still clutching Jack's arm tightly, almost afraid to let him go.  
  
When Pènne finally did answer, it wasn't to Sam as expected, but to Jack, whose tense face she pinned her cold blue eyes with a hard, yet searching look. "You have others, slumbering in your household at this moment, do you not?" Feeling Sam suddenly jerk beside him, and knowing exactly what she was thinking, he took a step sideways, brushing her hip, before he answered the lovely elf.  
  
"Yes, I do. They are friends of both mine and Sam's, who are taking her disappearance badly." Risking a quick glance down at Sam's face, he saw her cheeks had taken on a reddish glow and he resisted yet another smirk.  
  
Pènne looked from Sam's pink face up to his and Jack could have sworn he saw the faintest hint of a smile grace her passionless, regal face. "One of them is young, yet she mourns as deep as the other. Has she not been shielded from the worst remarks as a young woman of her kind should be?"  
  
Looking at Sam, she netted her eyebrows with a thoughtful frown. "She is not of your kind, yet she lives among you. Is she the girl child you have told me of, Samantha? Called Cassandra?"  
  
Sam nodded her head. "Yes. And I know my friends had her best interests at heart when telling her whatever they did. She is a strong young woman, Pènne, and she has people to watch out for her."  
  
But Pènne scoffed, clearly not agreeing. But she let the matter drop when she turned back to Jack. "You may remain in Middle-Earth with Samantha and your child until it is time for your sleeping companions to rise. It would not bode well for them to find you in your motionless state and grow alarmed when they fail to rouse you."  
  
Unable to speak, Jack just looked down at Sam, wanting to see her reaction to this decision, but found instead she was already watching him, a huge grin on her face. And at that moment, the fact that they were about to meet their child for the first time hit both of them like a fist in the stomach. Sam swallowed, seemingly nervous, but the grin wouldn't leave her face as she finally tore her eyes away from Jack and turned back to Pènne.  
  
"Alright then," she said impatiently. "Let's get this show on the road."  
  
Only Jack smiled at her words, for they forced Pènne and Gandalf to glance at each other with perplexed expressions, before Gandalf cleared his throat and clapped his hands together. Coming to stand between Sam and Jack, he placed a hand on each of their shoulders gently and with one last tender look at Sam, he turned to Pènne with a determined look that spoke volumes  
  
Without having to be told, Pènne walked up to the trio and reached out to clasp both of Sam's hands in hers. Closing her eyes, she dipped her head and took a deep breath. "Let your mind float away from this room," she explained to Sam and Jack, who were watching the elf with doubtful expressions as if wondering if this was actually going to work. "I can only be the catalyst for the change, you must want it yourself. Think of where you will be going to, of what you will find in your destination." Pènne said, and she shot Jack a quick look before dipping her head again.  
  
"Right." Jack muttered under his breath and he followed her example and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and feeling foolish as he did so. But then, as he filled his head with thoughts of his child, that he had yet to meet, but who it seemed he knew so well already, Jack felt the familiar sensation of feeling weightless and even though he tried, he found he could no longer open his eyes.  
  
And as he felt his body start to float away from his surroundings, a strong, male voice drifted into his brain just as he let himself be washed away with the feeling of soaring across a great distance, sensing somewhere in the back of his mind, that Sam was at his side, soaring with him.  
  
"Let it begin." Gandalf whispered, yet it was heard by all. "Their daughter awaits them."  
  
And then Jack ceased to think at all.  
  
**** To be continued... 


	10. Return of the Wandering Star

Part Ten: [Authors note: The title of this chapter, "Return of the Wandering Star" is in reference to Aragorn's mother, Gilraen, whose name translates to "Wandering Star"]  
  
* * *  
  
"Onen I-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim"  
  
(I gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself)  
  
- Gilraen the Fair, daughter of Dirhael, and mother of Aragorn Telcontar  
  
****  
  
In the months and years that followed, Jack O'Neill would always remember the moments that followed Gandalf's sudden, yet mischievous announcement as those in which the missing part of his heart and soul were finally netted back together. He would remember taking a huge breath as the words sank into his mind, before he felt the sudden shift of the air around him and knew without opening his eyes that they had arrived in this other, yet familiar, place.  
  
Letting his eyes pop open, Jack instantly closed them again with a wince as he caught the full burst of a ray of sunlight from the window facing him. Moving slightly to evade the sun, he felt himself brush up against another and knew instantly it was Sam, standing next to him.  
  
Opening his eyes again, yet slower and more cautiously this time, Jack was slightly disappointed to find himself in a room identical to the one he had just left. Right in front of him, tucked into the alcove as before, but with the curtain pulled back, was Sam's large, airy bed.  
  
But Jack's brain only had a second to comprehend this notion, as his entire being was focused on the new, unknown figures all standing around Sam's bed. There were three of them, two females and a man, and all were tall and regal looking. Wondering who these people were, but knowing he was bound to find out in a few moments anyway, Jack's eyes drew immediately to the lovely young woman sitting on Sam's bed, her dark hair falling around her shoulders making her remind Jack instantly of Pènne.  
  
Unlike her fair companions, both of which had turned immediately to Sam upon their small group's sudden arrival in the room, the dark haired woman instead fixed her startling blue eyes upon him and Jack found himself helpless to look away. Never had he seen such an exquisitely beautiful person, but under her piercing gaze he found himself being stripped of every protective barrier he had forced himself to place upon his mind over the past eight months.  
  
But when the woman suddenly smiled at him gently, as if knowing what her gaze was doing to him, Jack found he could finally take the breath he desperately needed. And it was then, as the ebony haired creature dropped her gaze to her lap that Jack found his eyes following them and what he found make him suck in his breath loudly. In some part of him brain, he registered Sam dropping her hand to her side as she too, froze at his side where her outstretched hand had just been about to clasp the hand of the other blonde woman in the room, who Jack had failed to even glance at.  
  
For contrasting against the dark haired woman's brilliant blue robes was a bundle of white cloth resting safely in her lap. Jack just stared at it for what he later would have sworn was a million years, unable to get his feet to move. As he failed to notice her moving at his side, he decided Sam was in the same situation he was and he almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a small, frozen hand snake into his own and squeeze tightly.  
  
Glancing down at Sam's face, Jack was surprised to see a look of naked terror on her fair features as she stared across at the now twitching bundle in the lovely woman's lap.  
  
"Samantha?" a voice drifted through the silence and Jack felt Sam jerk violently at his side as she snapped her head up to stare at the exotic woman sitting on her bed. At once her shoulder's seemed to droop and relief flashed across her face.  
  
"Oh, god, Arwen." she murmured, and all at once her whole posture changed as she dropped her hand from Jack's and silently made her way across the floor. Jack stayed where he was, unable to tear his gaze off the thousand different emotions that were flitting across Sam's face.  
  
He watched as she came to stand in front of the ebony haired woman he now knew was called Arwen and gazed down at the white bundle he knew contained their daughter. She stared for a few seconds, unblinking, before Jack noticed the tears falling from her eyes. Ever so slowly, Sam reached down and fingered the cloth hesitantly, as if she was afraid it was going to disappear. She gently drew the cloth aside and sucked in a breath when a flash of creamy pink skin came into view.  
  
All at once, Sam lifted up her head and looked across at him, her eyes brimming, but with a watery smile on her face, and Jack didn't hesitate as he found himself walking over to the small group even without noticing his legs were moving.  
  
When he reached them, he peered over Sam's shoulder and gazed down at the sleeping, wrinkly face of his daughter and Jack would have sworn to the pope himself that there wasn't anything more beautiful in the entire galaxy. Putting a shaking hand on Sam's shoulder, he barely noticed her leaning back against his chest as they both continued to stare down at the flushed, pink face that they had made.  
  
"Well done, Sam," he found himself whispering in the blonde woman's ear without really realizing what he was saying. "Well done."  
  
She must have given some kind of disbelieving laugh in reply for the sudden sound rebounded through the silent room and Jack watched as the baby scrunched up her face, seemingly annoyed at being disturbed, and open her eyes to the world.  
  
They were as blue as the Atlantic, and even Jack, who had been through this before and knew that all babies were born with blue eyes, found himself blinking tears out of his own eyes at the sight. Sam got down on her knees beside Arwen, and brushing the cloth away so her whole face was visible, peered down into the tiny face as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.  
  
"She's got eyes like me." the blonde woman murmured in a disbelieving tone, and jerked out of her daze when both Jack and Arwen laughed at her words.  
  
Snapping her head up, the two women stared at each other for the fraction of a second before Sam clumsily leaned up on her knees and reached over to embrace the woman sitting on her bed, cocooning the baby between them. Jack watched them, a slight smile on his face, as Sam whispered loudly, "Thank you so much, Arwen. Thank you from the bottom of my heart." And Jack got the sudden feeling that she was thanking her for something quite other than looking after the baby while they had been gone.  
  
Pulling back, the exotic woman reached across and cupping the side of Sam's face, telling her in a gentle voice, "It is nothing, my friend. Use it well." Then she raised her azure eyes and again trained them on Jack's face. And the look she gave him spoke more than any words could.  
  
Just then, a voice broke through the silence. "So, young ones, have you a name for this youngster, or are we to call it anything or nothing until you decide?"  
  
Flashing a look in Gandalf's direction, Jack instead found himself staring at the two other new figures in the room, which before now, he hadn't taken much notice of. And now, somewhere in his mind, he wondered how he could have ever failed to heed them. Both wore layers of long silver robes and standing together, just out of the intimate circle of the new family and the dark haired Arwen, they looked to Jack like a pair of golden, grave angels.  
  
What was it with these people, he asked himself, that makes them so beautiful, yet so sad? Their eyes were ageless, gentle, kind, but cold as the dawn. And as he stood there, in elvish clothes similar to their own, he found himself under the gaze of the woman, and swore he found stars sparkling with her cerulean depths. Of the four of their kind who he had beheld, only Pènne and Arwen had the flash of youth within their eyes and he wondered at it, wondered at what made the dark haired women so different from the others of their kind.  
  
With the thought of Pènne, Jack tore his gaze from the blonde woman, and searched the room for his deliverer, but she was nowhere to be seen.  
  
"Pènne has gone to find one who should also be here, yet had wandered off with time." Looking across at the blonde woman who had just spoken, he found her still facing ahead, but gazing at him out of the corner of her eyes, and Jack got the feeling that her words were for him only.  
  
Giving his head a quick shake to clear it, he went back to Arwen and Sam, who were still pouring over the baby. Sitting next to Arwen on the bed, he glanced down at Sam with a smile, seeing that she had the baby on her lap. "Well?" he asked her, causing everyone in the room to regard him keenly. "Have you thought of a name?"  
  
With his words, Gandalf banked his staff on the ground a few times and nodded his head in approval. "A fine question, young man, a fine question in deed. But will we get an answer this time, Samantha, or will you and the Lady Arwen continue to stare at the young miracle until night falls?"  
  
Sam finally looked up and Jack was pleased to see the joy in her eyes. Even thought her words were for all, she wouldn't take her eyes away from his as she spoke. "Yes, actually. I had thought of a name." She spoke softly, yet assured. Sitting on the ground, cross-legged, the bundle was cushioned in her lap and one of her hands was absently brushing the soft material protectively. The other hand reached up and gathered one of Jack's.  
  
"I want her to have a name that recognizes where she truly comes from, where her parents come from." Pausing, she looked up at Gandalf, and gave the man a gentle smile. "For she will know one day that she is American in name, if not in birth. But she's got to have a name that also recognizes she is part of Middle-Earth, and always will be, even if one day we both go back to our world."  
  
Still looking at Gandalf, Sam trailed off, giving the others time to process her words. But Jack, who had already expected her to say something like this, was first to see the door on the far side of the room silently open and two figures slip though. Looking up, he recognized Pènne first, and smiling, he had just been about to call out a greeting when he caught sight of the man with her.  
  
The first thing Jack noticed was he was not the same kind as Arwen and the others and that he appeared as human as he and Gandalf did. But there was something about him, a raw, rugged power that made the Colonel frown. Dressed in dark green and brown, he looked more out of place in the room than anybody else, yet the way he held himself, the proud tilt of his chin and straight back, identified him as one of them.  
  
Not knowing if he should say anything about their new guest, Jack kept quiet, waiting for something to greet the man whom he guessed was Aragorn. He didn't have to wait long for Arwen's eyes lit up as she glimpsed the man standing off to the side, and she quickly stood, alerting everyone of his arrival.  
  
"Aragorn, my friend!" Gandalf cried, turning his head and beckoning the silent man over. "Where have you hailed from? We expected your return an age ago! Come, behold what you have missed!"  
  
Following the sweep of Gandalf's arm, Aragorn's eyes fell on Jack and his eyebrows rose in slight surprise. The two men stared at each other for a few seconds, both making their own conclusions, before Aragorn abruptly took a step forward and surprised the hell out of Jack by extending his hand in greeting, a warm smile on his face.  
  
"Greetings, Jack O'Neill." Aragorn said as Jack resolutely took his outstretched hand, his voice firm, yet kind. "Welcome to Middle-Earth and Lothlórien. I have heard much of you from Samantha, and was looking forward to meeting you at last. I trust you found everything to your liking?"  
  
Perplexed, Jack nodded and shot a quick glance at Sam, who was watching the exchange with a barely contained smile. Catching his eye, she raised her eyebrows in question, but Jack read the challenge in her blue eyes. Frowning at her, he turned back to Aragorn and shrugged.  
  
"Sure, I like this place just fine. It would be nice to know a bit more about where it exactly is in the scheme of things, but apart from that I've got no complaints." Unable to stop the grin that appeared on his face, Jack jerked his head in the direction of the two women by the bed. "Sam was just about to tell us what name she had picked out for the baby and I think certain people are getting a bit antsy." This last bit was complemented with a quick glance at Gandalf.  
  
Grinning broadly, Aragorn walked over to Sam and Arwen and gazed down at the now sleeping baby, his hand reaching out to grasp Arwen's in the process as all three of them regarded the child. Sam looked up at him with a bright smile. "It's so good to have you back, Aragorn. You've been missed." He didn't give her a response, only resting a hand on her shoulder for a beat and giving it a warm squeeze. The moment gone, both went back to gazing down at the baby.  
  
"Gilraen." Sam suddenly murmured, causing everyone, especially Aragorn, to turn to her in question. Looking up, she blinked to find everyone's eyes on her and blushed slightly when she realised she must have spoken out loud.  
  
Turning her face up to Aragorn's, she bit her lip in worry. "Would you mind terribly?" she asked softly, as if apprehensive of his answer. But she found she shouldn't have bothered, for Aragorn's response was everything she could have hoped for. He stared down at the baby with a look of wonder in his eyes, as if seeing her in a new light. Lightly brushing the soft, fair down on the baby's head, he turned to the new mother and smiled.  
  
"You do not only my mother, but all my kin a great honor, dear friend. I am sure she would be immensely proud for her name to be carried on in your daughter." Turning, Aragorn gazed across at Jack, who had been listening to the conversation intensely.  
  
"But what of you, Colonel?" The man asked, a grin growing on his lips. "Will you not lay claim to half of this child's calling?"  
  
Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on the bed and made a show of critically examining the sleeping infant, causing Sam to laugh. "I don't know, Sam. I can't think of any fancy names for her, I reckon Gilraen is just fine." Looking up, he caught Aragorn's eye and held it. "And I happen to agree, she should have a name that symbolizes both her homes. And your mother's name seems to fit her, don't you think?"  
  
Looking down again at the baby, a thought struck Jack that made him frown in consideration. "How about Gilraen Cheyenne, Sam?" he asked, looking up at everyone to see their reaction for a few seconds before turning back to Sam. He was pleased to see a wide smile on her face as his words registered. He saw her lips mouthing the words as if trying them out. Then see looked up brightly and beamed.  
  
"Gilraen Cheyenne O'Neill," she said. "I love it. It's beautiful." And before Jack knew what was happening, Sam gracefully stood from the floor, Gilraen still in her arms. Walking past Arwen and Aragorn, she bent down on her knees before him and gently rested the bundle on his lap, peering up into his face while doing so.  
  
Looking down, Jack stared into the baby's face, taking in every little feature and ever millimeter of flushed, pink skin. Reaching up, he lightly brushed her little, upturned nose causing the sleeping child to scrunch up her features in annoyance.  
  
"Well." Gandalf's voice broke through the pleasant haze. "I think we should leave the new parents with their babe for a while. I can see when I am no longer wanted nor needed."  
  
Coming closer, the old Wizard in turned peered down at Gilraen and Sam was touched to see his worn features soften every so slightly. Bending down, Gandalf gently kissed the top of Sam's blonde head before straightening up and lightly ruffling her growing hair. "Gilraen is a fine name, Samantha. It is both refined and strong, and if she is anything like her namesake, which I am sure she will be, little Gilraen is sure to go far."  
  
And with that, before a touched Sam could even utter a reply, he had turned and headed for the door. Both Sam and Jack followed his progress across the room and blinked when they noticed a figure hovering in the doorway. Pènne had a calm, peaceful expression on her face when she turned to face them and Sam had the feeling that the last few minutes had had more of an effect on the stoic elf that she was willing to admit.  
  
But when she spoke, her voice had the usual strong, clear tones it always had. "My conditions still stand, Jack O'Neill. I will come for you when you must return to your other world. I suggest you use your time together as best you can." And on that note, she silently walked through the doorway, pulling the wooden door closed gently as she went.  
  
Left alone, silence filled the now empty room as the new family found themselves together for the first time. Feeling suddenly very shy, Sam hesitantly stole a look up at Jack's face from where she still knelt at his feet. Feeling his heavy gaze on her even before their eyes meet, Sam blushed as the full extent of Pènne's words hit her forcefully.  
  
"She didn't mean, ah, that is.." Feeling her face get even hotter, Sam looked down, not wanting him to see her this way. But the sound of his laughter caused her to frown and peak up at him through her hair. He was grinning broadly while looking around him with avid, curious eyes.  
  
Without looking at her, Jack said dryly, "Don't worry about it, Sam. I'm not as thick as I seem sometimes, I got what she was trying to say."  
  
A tad discontented, Sam nodded. "Oh. Good." Her voice held a trace of disappointment but Jack either didn't notice or ignored it for he just went back to examining Gilraen.  
  
"So do you like it here?" he asked her abruptly, causing Sam to blink with the random question. Wondering if there was more to what he was saying that meets the eye, Sam answered him carefully, while in turn looking around her bedroom with a soft smile.  
  
"Sure," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "Lothlórien's a wonderful place. I mean, if you have to be stuck somewhere for eight months without anyone you know, this is definitely the way to go." Feeling Jack's eyes boring into her head, she looked up into his face and tried to give him a smile.  
  
"It's not home, Jack," she said softly, wanting him to understand how she felt on the matter. And Sam found that her words were exactly what he seemingly needed, for the man let out a huge breath of air and a flash of relief showed on his face.  
  
Feeling the old companionship they use to share bubbling at the surface, Sam snorted and reached up to swat his arm. "For a man who says he's not as thick as everyone thinks he is, you can be an extreme idiot sometimes."  
  
But Jack only shrugged his shoulders, not about to apologize for anything. "What was I meant to think? I mean, you've got all these fancy friends and stuff, and those clothes! You look right at home with them, Sam, even if you don't seem to realize it."  
  
Not really liking where his words were going, Sam abruptly stood, causing Gilraen to give a start and Jack to crane his neck to see her face. "What's up?" he asked casually, but knowing that his words had effected her.  
  
Sam stared down at Gilraen's sleeping face so that she wouldn't have to look at him. "Nothing. I just thought you might like to have a look around, you know, actually leave this room for a change." She tilted her head to the side and risked a glance at him, to see how her attempt at lightening the situation had faired.  
  
Raising his eyebrows, Jack just stared up at her, not saying a word. But the look on his face made Sam deflate and she hung her head, her shoulder's drooping. "I'm sorry, Jack. It's just... I've forced myself not to think about that sort of stuff over the past months. I don't *want* to think about whether I'd rather be here or back home, because truthfully, I'm afraid of the answer." Her voice trailing off as she looked down at her sleeping daughter, a pained expression appeared on her face.  
  
"And I can't think of it now, not with Gilraen. She's going to have to live in this place, Jack. She's going to grow up a child in a world filled with elves that are thousands of years old than her and me. And I've got to make that as easy for her as I can."  
  
She didn't even notice Jack stand and, with Gilraen held expertly in one arm; reach out to lay a hand on her shoulder. Sam jerked at the touch, but when he gave a squeeze, she relaxed slightly. Looking up, they stared at each other, both filled with the pain of the separation they knew must come.  
  
"Just don't let her forget me. Please, Sam."  
  
His whispered, distressed words were all she needed, and careful of the baby between them, Sam went to him and let him gather her in his arms. And with the feel of him, the sensation that she had not allowed herself to forget over the past eight months, she felt the tears well up in her eyes and was powerless to stop them. Her head resting on his shoulder, she felt the arm that was not holding Gilraen go around her back and she breathed in deeply, remembering the smell of him, even with the elvish clothes he wore.  
  
And then she promised him, in the only way she could, that their daughter would one day know both her parents, even if that fateful day were far coming.  
  
****  
  
Walking with Jack a short time later through the gardens of Lothlórien, Sam gave a soft sigh of contentment and was rewarded when he gave the hand he was swinging lightly between them a squeeze. In a comfortable silence that needed no words, the two new parents aimlessly wandered where the worn paths took them, while contemplating the past few hours.  
  
Gilraen was still tucked in one of Jack's arms, and it seemed to Sam that he was quite happy to never let her go. Even now, as he gazed around him at the phenomenal sights that surrounded him, ever so often he would drop his gaze to the baby and just stare at her, as if he couldn't believe she was there, in his arms, sound asleep.  
  
Every time she caught one of these glances Sam felt the pain slice through her heart at the thought of Jack having to give up his daughter when the time came. As she watched him, quite openly from his side, she privately thought to herself that it would have been kinder on the elves behalf to have never brought him here. At least then he wouldn't have the added burden he would now carry with him, always and forever. That somewhere out in the galaxy in a place he could not reach, his lover and child where living a life apart from him, never knowing when he would see them again.  
  
With that thought, Sam closed her eyes and gave another sigh, but this one of regret and remorse.  
  
"Don't, Sam," came a tired voice at her side and Sam gave a jump at the sound of it. Turning, she gazed at Jack with a slight frown, willing him to explain. But he only shook his head at her and catching a glimpse of his face, Sam was sorry to see how weary he suddenly looked.  
  
"You can't go on thinking like that, it's only going to drive you nuts and I'm certainly not going to be blamed for driving you out of your mind if I'm not even here to do it." Tugging on her hand slightly, he lead her into one of the closed-in glens, and Sam got the shock of her life when she raised her eyes between the trees and saw the city below them. She hadn't known they had wandered so far.  
  
Following her gaze, Jack put his spare hand around her shoulders and pulled her in next to him. Without really realising what she was doing, Sam moulded herself against his side and rested her head on his shoulder as together, they watched the early afternoon sun try desperately to pierce the dense trees that encircled Caras Galadhon.  
  
"That really is a view." Jack murmured under his breath and Sam gave a small smile. She liked it up here; she had often made the trek earlier in her pregnancy to get away from everything and everyone down below. But as Gilraen had grown, Sam had found herself coming less and less, for there was no way she was going to try to drag her growing bulk up the hill. When Arwen had come to stay in Lothlórien two weeks ago in preparation of Gilraen's birth, the two women, at Sam's insistence, had gone around some of the smaller glens closer to the city for some time to themselves.  
  
But now, as Sam looked around, she found that she had missed this place, in a strange, fond kind of way. She spied the group of boulders she had often sat on while writing letters to her friends, and on impulse, she began to drag Jack over to them. She caught the indulgent, bemused grin he sent her but ignored it, only coming to a stop to spread her hands across the nearest boulder, feeling the warmth from the stone float up her arms.  
  
Turning her head, she grinned across at Jack, who was watching her with raised eyebrows. "You like this place, I take it?" And without waiting for her answer, he turned down to the sleeping baby and whispered loudly, "Your mummy's already loosing her marbles, and I haven't even left yet."  
  
"That, Colonel O'Neill, is hardly a laughing matter."  
  
At the unexpected voice, Sam jerked her head around in surprise and saw Arwen and Pènne walking across the glen to meet them. Both dark haired women had silver cloaks fastened at their necks with leaf broaches similar to the ones Sam had seen on Aragorn and Gandalf as they departed Lothlórien and Sam swallowed tightly at the sight of them.  
  
Spying Jack go still at the sight of the two elves, and knowing what was going through his mind, Sam took a step away from the boulders. "Arwen?" she asked; her voice filled with question and the dread she knew would come with the answer.  
  
Seeing the fear in both Earthlings eyes, Arwen came to her friend and took her hand. "It is time," was her only answer, but her eyes held the sorrow and sympathy that Sam needed to see. Her head turning in Jack's direction even before the words were out of Arwen's mouth, both soldiers stared at each other for a beat, not knowing what to do. They had known this moment must come, but at its arrival they both realised they were in no way ready for farewells.  
  
Looking into Jack's dark eyes, and remembering the laughter and fun that had once played within their depths, but now only seeing the blank look of grief and regret, Sam wished for a single second that none of this had ever happened, that both of them were back at the SGC with Daniel, Teal'c and the others. That none of them had ever had to experience the pain and loss that they had, just so Sam and Gilraen could go on with the life away from the rest of them, in a place they didn't know existed.  
  
In the end, and during the months and years to come, it was Pènne who would give both Sam and Jack the single source of comfort they would need, and that sense of peace came from the strangest of places.  
  
Knowing that both parents were hurting, but knowing that they were fighting a loosing battle against time, the dark haired elf stepped around her mistress and laid a hand on Jack's forearm, successfully pulling his eyes away from his daughter. Giving the man a comforting smile, she told him gently, "Remember what gifts you have received from this place, Jack O'Neill, the actual as well as the memories."  
  
Jack just blinked at her for a second, wondering what the hell she was talking about, his mind swimming in dangerous waters already. But then, in a sudden burst in recollection, the distressed man remembered the pouch she had given him shortly after his arrival, of what he had completely forgotten about until now. Taking his arm from under Pènne's, he shoved his free hand into the pockets of his robes and sure enough, when he withdrew his hand, the brown, drawstring pouch was clutched between his fingers.  
  
Jack stared at it, his eyebrows raised, until he heard Sam's curious voice from beside him, "What the heck is that?" Wanting to find out the answer as much as she did, Jack gently and reluctantly passed Gilraen over to her mother and then attacked the drawstring. Tugging it open, he tipped its contents out into his hand and stared down at the object that was already warming against his skin.  
  
It was a pendant about he size of his palm; a smooth, oval shaped stone in the most amazing shades of emerald and black swirls. At the top was a hole, in which thin gold threat had been interwoven, obviously for the intention of being placed around a person's neck.  
  
Staring down at it, Jack felt Sam come up beside him and passed it over to her, wondering what her reaction to the necklace would be.  
  
But she looked just as confused as he did, but strangely enough, it was as if she didn't want to hold it for any long period of time and as soon as she had looked it over as intently as she could, she quickly pressed the stone back into his hand with a clouded expression on her face.  
  
But then it seemed that they were at last out of time, for Arwen and Pènne had once again joined them, and Jack saw the sad look on the elvish princess's face.  
  
"I know you have questions, young one. But never fear, this gift will answer all for you in good time. It will be a comfort to you in times of sorrow and darkness. Use it well." Arwen's words were soft, and almost a dream to the suddenly wary man.  
  
But as he felt his eyes grow heavy, he felt Sam place her hand in his, and he could still see her face, her calm, yet distressed face, and with it, the sleeping face of their child, safe within her arms. And it was at Gilraen at Jack managed to look last, and he knew, as he felt himself begin to fall into the darkness, that he would never forget her for as long as he breathed. 


End file.
